Question about the normative nature of IETF RFCs

["Fleischman, Eric" <eric.fleischman at boeing.com>]

Friends,

When did we in the IETF first begin to view our standards track RFCs to
be normative? 

Specifically, when I first became associated with you all in 1992, the
RFCs of most IETF standards were incomplete and the reference
implementations (i.e., running code) were what was considered to be
normative. At a certain point (very late 90s??) the IETF began to
reference the text of its standards track RFCs as if the RFC texts
themselves were normative (e.g., in an OSI or ITU-like manner). When did
that transition occur? Was there a specific event that marked that
transition (e.g., a POISED WG)?? Did we formally document this evolution
somewhere? Do we currently consider today the reference implementations
to be more (or less??) normative than the RFC texts themselves? 

Thanks!

--Eric

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