Re: Diagrams (Was RFCs should be distributed in XML)

[Steve Crocker <steve at shinkuro.com>]

Phillip,

I spent a large fraction of my professional life in pursuit of this  
alluring and seemingly simple goal.  Here's a small challenge: Take  
*any* IETF protocol and write down the formal specification.  Never  
mind the proof of correctness; that can come later.  (And with it an  
extended discussion of the underlying logical system, the formal  
system for representing the protocol specification, and the proof  
system you have in mind for carrying out the proof.)  Of course, the  
formal specification will have to be readable and understandable to  
the general population, and there will have to ready agreement that  
it does embody the desired properties.  Pick something simple.   
Perhaps IP?  Feel free to leave out messy details like performance  
issues if you wish.  Just something simple and instructive to make  
your point.  And in light of the other issues being discussed, don't  
feel constrained to use ASCII.  Use any notation and tools you like.

Steve



Steve Crocker
steve at shinkuro.com


On Nov 17, 2005, at 10:09 AM, Hallam-Baker, Phillip wrote:

> If we want to enforce simpler, more accurate design the best way to do
> this would be to require a formal proof of correctness before  
> accepting
> a specification.
>
> Requiring people to use 1960s technology is not a way to achieve
> simplicity.
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: ietf-bounces at ietf.org [mailto:ietf-bounces at ietf.org] On
> > Behalf Of Masataka Ohta
> > Sent: Thursday, November 17, 2005 8:30 AM
> > To: Yaakov Stein
> > Cc: ietf at ietf.org; Stewart Bryant
> > Subject: Re: Diagrams (Was RFCs should be distributed in XML)
> >
> > Yaakov Stein wrote:
> >
> > > > It's good that protocols needing more than 72 ASCII characters are
> > > > forbidden.
> >
> > > Just imagine what elegantly simple protocols we would have if we
> > > required the descriptions to be in Morse code.
> >
> > Good idea.
> >
> > It's a better approach to enforce much simpler protocols.
> >
> > 						Masataka Ohta
> >
> >
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>
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