Subject: [xml2rfc-dev] <eref> formatting in text output

From: Julian Reschke <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 2 Oct 2019 06:19:56 +0200

In V3 mode the text formatter now formats <eref> elements without
surrounding angle brackets.

So, for instance,

>    Working Group information can be found at <https://httpwg.org/>;
>    source code and issues list for this draft can be found at
>    <https://github.com/httpwg/http-core>.

now becomes

>    Working Group information can be found at https://httpwg.org/; source
>    code and issues list for this draft can be found at
>    https://github.com/httpwg/http-core.

On the plus side, this makes the output consistent with the HTML output.
On the negative side, it makes URI formatting inconsistent with the way
URIs appear in references.

Also, it is violating a style guide recommendation
(<https://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-flanagan-7322bis-04#section-3.3>):

> 3.3.  DNS Names and URIs
>
>    DNS names, whether or not in URIs, that are used as generic examples
>    in RFCs should use the particular examples defined in "Reserved Top
>    Level DNS Names" [BCP32], to avoid accidental conflicts.
>
>    Angle brackets are strongly recommended around URIs [STD66], e.g.,
>
>    <https://example.com/ >
>
>    The use of HTTPS rather than HTTP is strongly encouraged.

Or is the assumption that authors add literal angle brackets *around*
<eref> elements? This would lead to ugly XML source due to the required
escaping.

I think this needs more work - not sure where (style guide/format
specs/formatter...).

Best regards, Julian