IETF XML Guidelines Approved and Updated

["Hollenbeck, Scott" <shollenbeck@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Marshall, Larry, and I recently received word that the IESG has approved our
XML guidelines Internet-Draft with two needed additions:

(1) "Experience has shown that code that parses network traffic is often a
"soft target" for blackhats. Accordingly, implementors MUST take great care
to ensure that their XML handling code is robust with respect to malformed
XML, buffer overruns, and so on."

(2) There is some concern about specifications with lots of XML and little
if any accompanying text. (I guess there have already been some examples of
this.) The document needs to have some text added about how an XML
definition is necessary but not sufficient; there must also be prose in IETF
documents describing the semantics of whatever XML the document has elected
to define.

We also took the opportunity to incorporate changes suggested by others that
were received after the previous version was published.  You can see the
most recent update of the document here:

http://www.imc.org/ietf-xml-use/index.html

before it is publicly announced by the IETF.  We're keeping the mailing list
and web site open as the document may well be updated in the future as XML
thinking evolves.

Thank you for all of your comments and contributions!

-Scott-