Subject: Re: Draft: IETF listing of open source implementations of IETF specs

From: "Harald Alvestrand (outlook)" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 4 Feb 1999 10:25:31 +0100

IMNSHO, I think the maintenance of such a list of implementations
is a perfect job for an IETF-friendly organization like the IMC.

This achieves two things:

- There is no question about IETF endorsement of the list
- It does not add to the workload of the IETF bureaucracy.

I think the value of having such a list would be that it only contained
implementations that *claimed* to implement the standard; it would,
for instance, not contain references to software that the implementors
knew was incomplete or in conflict with the standards.

Of course, a "notepad" for people who claim that the listed product does
not implement the standard correctly should be maintained, too;
I guess a clone of freshmeat.net would be a perfect tool for the job.

                      Harald A

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From: "David T. Perkins" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 04 Feb 1999 09:17:09 -0800

HI,

There are news groups, such as comp.protocols.snmp, that maintain FAQs
on which there are listed both commercial providers of software (for SNMP
related products) and freely available implementations. This seems to
work well.

>I guess a clone of freshmeat.net would be a perfect tool for the job.

Regards,
/david t. perkins

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From: "David T. Perkins" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 04 Feb 1999 09:17:09 -0800

HI,

Regards,
/david t. perkins

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From: Chris Newman <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 04 Feb 1999 13:36:48 -0800 (PST)

> - It does not add to the workload of the IETF bureaucracy.

These are critical points.

Having any appearance of IETF endorsement of one implementation over
another would tarnish the IETF's reputation.  I'm normally not fond of
extra levels of indirection, but this is a case where it's necessary.

Also, are you aware how much work is involved in making an implementation
list?  www.imap.org has hundreds of implementations and that's for only
one IETF protocol.  The last thing we need is to give the secretariat a
job so big we'd have to massively grow their funding. 

That said, I wouldn't mind if the IETF had a page with links to
one or more IETF-friendly organizations which listed implementations of
IETF protocols.

		- Chris

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From: Chris Newman <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 04 Feb 1999 13:36:48 -0800 (PST)

- Chris