[saag] Re: A simpler form of OID

On Wed, Sep 17, 2025 at 12:38:03PM -0400, Phillip Hallam-Baker wrote:
> So I had a bunch of thoughts on using variants for the purpose and suddenly
> realized there is a much simpler approach than specifying the conversion of
> integers to strings of octets: The octet sequence is sufficient.

Oh wait, you're proposing an OID-like object but with a different
namespace managed by IANA.  By having a single registry we'd solve most
of the problems with OIDs, and we could have each registration include
document references, user-friendly descriptor, and even URNs.

These would be a compression of URNs/whatever in many cases.

I'd be happy with such a thing.  Except that you want a namespace of all
these OID-like things for just one protocol (or, well, I think you meant
just cryptographic algorithms), and that seems too restricted.  We might
as well have this be much more generic.

> This would be backed by an IANA registry (of course) with the following
> rules:
> 
> Number of Octets
> 
> 1-2: Standards Action Required [Special]
> 3-4: Standards Action Required
> 5-6: Specification and expert review Required
> 7-15: First come first served.
> 16-64: Open Season

I'd like this to have more general applicability and to be able to
reserve sub-namespaces to specific protocols, just as with OIDs we
can reserve sub-namespaces to registrants.  Then IANA would only accept
registrations in those sub-namespaces if they are for the same
protocols.

> What this approach allows me to do is to make use of a temporary
> unregistered identifier derived from a hash in development and switch
> painlessly to a compact identifier in production.

Clever and convenient,

Nico
-- 

_______________________________________________
saag mailing list -- [email protected]
To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected]