Re: text format of configurations

[Bill Woodcock <woody@pch.net>]

    > re: 03 & 04. strong echo of Adi's statement. if the vendor only supplied
    > compiled configurations, they should be required to decompile when speaking
    > the 'Infrastructure Management Protocol'

I think is is one area where operators and vendors may run into a
sticking-point...  Jon and I talked about it at some length.  It's _really
important_ to operators that we have a uniform configuration syntax
between devices, so that we don't have to train technicians on several
different kinds of syntax.

This obviously benefits competitive vendors, and is a potential problem
for incumbent vendors, if the incumbent vendors aren't competitive.  If
the syntax for a new device is the same as that which our techs are used
to, we can deploy it without the cost of retraining, which means we're
more likely to buy it.

                                -Bill