Re: CORRECTION: Document Action: 'Terminology Used in Internationalization in the IETF' to Informational

[Randy Bush <randy@psg.com>]

> 	This document gives an overview of internationalization
> 	as it applies to IETF standards work by lightly covering
> 	the many aspects of internationalization and the
        ^^^
> 	vocabulary associated with those topics.  It is not
> 	meant to be a complete description of
> 	internationalization.  The definitions in this document
> 	are not normative for IETF standards; however, they are
> 	useful and standards may make non-normative reference to
> 	this document after it becomes an RFC.
> 
> While it is not intended to be a "complete description", it does 
> claim to cover the "many aspects", which implies that it covers 
> all i18n topics the IETF considers relevant.  As a statement 
> about what Paul considers relevant, that is great.  As a 
> statement about what the IETF considers relevant, there should 
> be clear evidence of consensus.

john is correct.  in american, the underlined "the" implies that
these are ALL the many aspects.

> The last of these sentences defies my understanding of the 
> meaning of "normative".  If I am writing one document, and I 
> refer to another one for definitions that are required to 
> properly understand the first, there is no way for that 
> reference not to be normative.  If it were intended to say "use 
> of these definitions is not obligatory for IETF standards 
> addressing internationalization", that would be different.  But, 
> for those documents that reference this one, definitions are 
> still normative unless it makes no difference whether those, or 
> other, definitions are applied.

while i agree with john's confusion about the normativeness issue,
i suspect the author put it there as an inept attempt to meet the 
kind of objections john is raising.  the author is attempting to
walk some kind of middle line.

tell me, what is this document?  is it a serious terminology base,
or is it one view of the universe with some interesting survey
material as well?

i will be off net for 20 mins, and will be calling john later.
if you want to call my mobile, i will be in range at 11:50gmt for
an hour or 1.5.

randy