Re: Comments on draft-klensin-email-i18n-message-00.txt

> The only snag is that RFC 2442 is an Informational RFC, and hence could
> not be referenced in a Standards-Track document (though it might be OK in
> an Experimental RFC). That problem does not look insurmountable.

You have this exactly backwards. References to informational RFCs are allowed
in standards track RFCs, modulo certain restrictions that have yet to be
formalized. (There is a draft out on this out there somewhere, I believe.) If
the informational status of a document is seen to be a problem, it is likely
that it can be changed with minimal effort.

Normative references to experimental protocols, however, are generally not
allowed. And moving an experimental document to the standards track is,
generally speaking, a more difficult proposition, as whatever issue that led it
to be classified as experimental has to be dealt with. And given what it has
historically taken to force a specification to experimental this can be a very
nontrivial proposition. (This has changed in more recent times - the
IESG has begun to use experimental status more than it used to.) 

				Ned