RE: Where to root MIB modules - descriptors

["C. M. Heard" <heard@pobox.com>]

On Mon, 5 Jan 2004, David T. Perkins wrote:
> What do have described below would work perfectly if:
>  1) MIB tools could cope with identical descriptors in
>      two MIB modules
>  2) support of the <MODULE-NAME>"."<descriptor>
>     was available in MIB compilers and tools
>  3) all authors and readers of MIB modules understood
>     the notation

While agreeing with all of the above, I'd like to point out
that the need to disambiguate descriptors with identical
names in, say, the experimental module FIZBIN-MIB-SNAPSHOT-1
and the standard module FIZBIN-MIB would arise only in a
management station that is required to support a population
of devices where some support only FIZBIN-MIB-SNAPSHOT-1 while
others support only FIZBIN-MIB.  But, the whole idea (or
so I have thought) is that experimental modules get only
limited deployment and the equipment that supports them
gets quickly upgraded once the standard comes out.  In that
case this is really a non-issue.  Of course, some folks
have the idea that experimental drafts should be rushed into
wide deployment; and then, of course, there would be a problem.
On the other hand, folks who think like that can always "clone"
a more-or-less stable draft under their enterprise trees and
do whatever they wish about the descriptors.

//cmh