Wet blankets

Eric W. Sink (eric@spyglass.com)
Tue, 23 May 95 11:21:53 EDT

In response to the exceedingly lengthy discussion on link types, Roy
Fielding wrote:

>At this point I'd like to throw a wet blanket on the link type
>discussion.

And Dan Connolly chimed in:

>Seconded. At least for this forum. I think the business at hand is:
>
> the 2.0 draft
> the tables document (where is it?)
> the internationalization document (where is it?)

Prompting a comment from me:

"Please be very careful with wet blankets."

I will agree that this discussion on link types is currently far too long,
and using up far more bandwidth than it should. Dan's list of the "business
at hand" is very much in line with my viewpoint.

Point: However, moving this group toward smaller, more focussed documents
is so important that I am VERY reluctant to do or say anything which might
squelch anyone's constructive initiative. Murray's initiative to take
responsibility for a document on link types is a Good Thing. As it happens,
I believe most WG participants would prioritize such a document somewhere
below the three items Dan listed above.

Counterpoint: When discussion of a topic gets as long as the link type one
has, it behooves us to ask if an IETF mailing list is the right place. Dan
suggested taking it to the www-talk until more details get worked out. The
general issue of link types is something we want to address in HTML
standardization, but if a discussion really is miles from the first glimpse
of consensus, then it should move elsewhere. Murray, I will leave
responsibility for this judgement call to you.

--
Eric W. Sink
Senior Software Engineer, Spyglass
eric@spyglass.com