[Tools-discuss] Re: Reference formats in idnits (and xml2rfc)

[Henrik Levkowetz <henrik at levkowetz.com>]

Hi Elwyn, 

on 2006-12-08 10:32 Elwyn Davies said the following:
> I have just been reviewing a document which uses the form [ REF1, REF2] 
> where there is a need in the document to refer to multiple references 
> from the same point.  This is a common convention AFAIK. The 
> experimental reference checking in idnits doesn't recognize it and 
> accordingly flags all the refs as unused..

Right, it's a complication I've ignored till now.

> I am not sure what the RFC Editor's position is on such multiple 
> references - but it doesn't tend to happen when using xml2rfc as it is 
> difficult (? impossible) to produce this format of output.  I realize it 
> may well be difficult to grok this kind of reference in idnits but if 
> possible it would be useful to accept it or (if it is deprecated) warn 
> about its usage.

Oh, I don't think it's deprecated, and don't see any reason for that to
be the case.  It's a nicer form than what xml2rfc is able to produce
today, and I'd hope that some day xml2rfc will be able to produce that
form.

I've taken some time this evening to update idnits to accept also this
form, with the result that over my test suite of about 100+ documents,
the count of flagged unused references decreased from 379 to 309 --
which is probably a very large reduction of false positives for the
unused reference indication.  I say probably, as I haven't inspected
the old and new warning lists against the actual documents, but it
looks promising.

This will be available in version 1.122, which should be out shortly.


Regards,

	Henrik

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