Re: Last Call: 'Proposed Experiment: Normative Format in Additionto ASCII Text' to Experimental RFC (draft-ash-alt-formats)

[Tony Finch <dot at dotat.at>]

On Sun, 25 Jun 2006, Stephen Sprunk wrote:
> Thus spake "Carl Malamud" <carl at media.org>
> >
> > "RFC authors MUST NOT use calculus or matrix algebra.  Addition and
> > subtraction MAY be expressed as formulas but authors SHOULD NOT
> > use formulations sufficiently complex to make a reader's head hurt."
>
> IMHO, this would be a very good rule; the IETF is supposedly about running
> code, and complex equations that the average programmer cannot understand
> without digging up a college math book are unimplementable in the real world.
> Pseudocode is far, far more valuable than pretty equations.

It's often the case that there can be a fair amount of maths that explains
why a bit of really simple code does what it is supposed to, and this
should be part of the specification.

Tony.
-- 
f.a.n.finch  <dot at dotat.at>  http://dotat.at/
HUMBER THAMES: NORTH 4 OR 5, OCCASIONALLY 6 AT FIRST, DECREASING 3. RAIN DYING
OUT. MODERATE OR POOR BECOMING GOOD.

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