Subject: ISSUE: Misrepresentation of application focus

From: Harald Tveit Alvestrand <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 16 Jun 2003 12:34:51 +0200

-issue- section 2.3 states:

   The IETF has historically standardized protocol components rather
   than complete systems but the current greater emphasis on work in the
   Applications area tends to require more engineering in the large.

ISSUE: The "current greater emphasis" on applications is probably false.

SUGGESTED RESOLUTION: Change text to "but as we have learned more about the 
ways in which systems on the Internet interact, design of components needs 
to take into account more and more external restraints, and the 
understanding of these restraints tends to require more engineering in the 
large."

Background: Having watched the applications area pretty carefully over many 
years, I would say that at the moment, the IETF places a good deal less 
emphasis on the applications area than it did 3 years ago - mostly because 
the people doing applications place less emphasis on the IETF; they've gone 
elsewhere.

This may be good or this may be bad (I personally think it's bad, but your 
mileage may vary) - but I think the document should be corrected on this 
point.

I agree with the statement that we've tended to need more engineering in 
the large, but I don't think it's correct to "blame" Applications for it.