RFC SERIES OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE (RSOC) October 18, 2021 RSOC Meeting Reported by: Cindy Morgan, IETF Secretariat ATTENDEES --------------------------------- Sarah Banks Jay Daley (IETF LLC Board Liaison, non-voting) Cullen Jennings (IAB Lead) John Levine, (Temporary RFC Series Project Manager, non-voting) Cindy Morgan (Scribe, non-voting) Adam Roach David Schinazi Peter Saint-Andre (RSOC Chair) GUEST --------------------------------- Sandy Ginoza (RFC Production Center) REGRETS --------------------------------- Tony Hansen RSOC DECISIONS: 2021 --------------------------------- - 2021-10-18: RSOC agrees that once 7991bis is stable, a script will be used to fix the XML on documents that do not conform to RFC 7991, and the documents will be re-rendered. After the documents are re- rendered, they will be checked to confirm that the text did not change. - 2020 Decisions: - 2019 Decisions: ACTION ITEM REVIEW --------------------------------- Done: - 2021-09-27: John Levine will make a proposed list of changes to the SVG profile. - 2021-01-26: John Levine to start a discussion with the community about whether the XML of an RFC can be changed as long as the text remains immutable. In Progress: - 2021-03-15: John Levine and Peter Saint-Andre to discuss the prioritization and time commitment needed to put together an end-to- end analysis to ensure that v3 XML can be used effectively and seamlessly at all stages of the authoring process (Recommendation 8), and report back to the RSOC. * Deadline 2021-11 New: - 2021-10-18: John Levine to update draft-iab-rfc7991bis. * Deadline 2021-11 NOTES --------------------------------- 1. Administrivia The minutes of the 2021-09-27 RSOC meeting were approved. 2. v3 Issues and Tools John Levine said said that if the XML of existing RFCs was reissued to match the updated specification, the following things would change: - would be flattened to a list of lines rather than using an abandonware format library - new defaults would be added for and maybe other elements - docName would be removed from the element or maybe repointed to the published RFC rather than the draft John Levine noted that the Tiny profile the RPC has been using for SVG has been abandoned and there does not appear to be a replacement. SVG images with text are a particular concern, as the text needs to be selectable and parsable by screen readers. Cullen Jennings said that screen readers should be using the alternate text in those cases. John Levine replied that SVG is frequently used for equations. Jay Daley asked if MathML would be better for equations than SVG. Adam Roach said that would require a lot additional work on the current tooling. There is only a small community that needs it, and the work to support it is not trivial. Peter Saint-Andre said that equations are not a common use case, but that the people who need equation support are vocal about what they want. Jay Daley said that it should be made clear that screen readers are expected to use the alternate text; there may need for a rendered version specifically for screen readers. John Levine said that he will update the requirements for SVG and start a discussion about it on the rfc-interest list so that no one is surprised. Jay Daley noted that there is a set of rendered RFCs where the XML does not conform to RFC 7991, but instead to extensions that were added by Henrik Levkowetz. If those are not to be re-rendered, then there will be a need for another spec in between 7991 and 7991bis. John Levine said that he thinks that everything should be re-rendered to conform to 7991bis. Peter Saint-Andre asked what the next steps are for 7991bis. John Levine replied that he hopes to get it up to date within the next month. * Action item: John Levine to update draft-iab-rfc7991bis. Once 7991bis is stable, the affected RFCs will be re-rendered to match the updated spec. A script will be sed to fix the XML, and after the documents are re-rendered they will confirm that the text has not changed. 3. Recommendations Following From the I-D Authors Survey * Recommendation 5: The process by which authors review RPC changes should be examined with a view towards understanding what tooling is required if this process is to use XML and not plain text as the common format. * Recommendation 8: An end-to-end analysis is carried out to ensure that v3 XML can be used effectively and seamlessly at all stages of the authoring process. Jay Daley reported that he has started work documenting the tools on authors.ietf.org. He is working with the IESG to merge the "Guidelines to Authors of Internet-Drafts" into that. Jay is trying to set up a meeting with interested people from the IESG on how to synchronize the authors.ietf.org microsite with GitHub. John Levine and Peter Saint-Andre are still discussing the prioritization and time commitment needed to put together an end-to- end analysis to ensure that v3 XML can be used effectively and seamlessly at all stages of the authoring process. * Recommendation 9: A significant minority want to use Markdown or similar and a strategic decision is needed on whether or not this should be "officially" supported either in some stages or in the full end-to-end authoring process. (see also Q20) Jay Daley reported that the use of Markdown for authoring I-Ds will be discussed at the IAB/IESG/LLC workshop later this week. Cullen Jennings asked what the potential outcome of this would be. Jay Daley replied that he thinks that a standardized version of Markdown is needed for the IETF, similar to how the IETF has its version of XML. The Markdown could be supported with plugins to existing editing tools and a rendering library. 4. RFC Editor Future Development Program Update Peter Saint-Andre reported that draft-iab-rfcefdp-rfced-model-04 was posted on 2021-10-11. The Program is still discussing two open issues about vacancies in the RSAB and what constitutes quorum. The Program hopes to resolve those issue this week and post a new revision so that the document can go out for Last Call. 5. AOB Jay Daley reported that as the RFC Editor Future Development Program is nearing completion, he has engaged a recruitment firm to help with hiring the RFC Series Consulting Editor and is putting together a search committee as outlined in the draft-iab-rfcefdp-rfced-model. 6. Next RSOC Meeting The next RSOC meeting is scheduled for Monday, November 15, 2021 at 4:00 PM PST.