Subject: Issues outstanding

From: John Stanley <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 7 Feb 2005 12:23:36 -0800 (PST)

"Charles Lindsey" <chl@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>:

>It has been established that there is no technical difference between
>these formulations. 

Established by whom? Certainly not by anyone in this group. 

I keep pointing out the difference. If a non-followup MAY have a 
References header, you lose the ability to identify followups. Until
you can answer this question with the same certainty under both 
"formulations", you cannot say that there is no technical difference:

"Article A has a References header that points to article B. Is it a 
followup to B?"

It used to be considered important to be able to identify followups, to 
the point that RFC2119 language was used in a place where it would 
otherwise be impermissible, and prior to that, language equivalent to 
RFC2119 was used. I'll point out to the peanut gallery that this language 
predated my participation in this process by quite a bit of time.

If followups are no longer important, than lets get rid of the header
whose sole function is to identify what follows up to what. If they are
still important, then don't eviscerate the only header that can identify
them.

---

From: "Charles Lindsey" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 14 Feb 2005 16:13:28 GMT

>Established by whom? Certainly not by anyone in this group. 

Of the small number of people on this group who had the patience to read
through your interminable rants, ALL agreed that there was no technical
difference involved. That part of this matter is CLOSED, unless you can
persuade our Chair to reopen it. The choice between the two alternatives
is now purely a matter of preference.

>References header, you lose the ability to identify followups.

There are two different definitions of 'followup' involved. You persist in
applying the definition of one alternative to the consequences which arise
in the other alternative, and so it is no wonder you land up with
nonsense.

-- 
Charles H. Lindsey ---------At Home, doing my own thing------------------------
Tel: +44 161 436 6131 Fax: +44 161 436 6133   Web: http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~chl
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