ietf-nntp Response codes - debugging, authentication & unknown

[Andrew Gierth]

>>>>> "Clive" == Clive D W Feather <clive at demon.net> writes:

 Clive> Merging this with Stan's comment, what about:

 Clive>       x8x - Reserved for authentication extensions
 Clive>       x9x - Reserved for private extensions

 Clive> and then:

 Clive>     Neither this document nor any extension registered with
 Clive>     IANA (see section 12) will specify any response codes of
 Clive>     the x9x pattern.

This has the same problem that X-commands and X-headers have; what
happens is that someone invents an extension, implements it, then
others also implement it, and lo and behold we find that it can't be
standardised. This is what happened with authentication,
XOVER/XHDR/XPAT, etc.

We should add a warning along these lines to any such wording:

    Neither this document nor any extension registered with
    IANA (see section 12) will specify any response codes of
    the x9x pattern. (Implementors of extensions are accordingly
    cautioned not to use such responses for extensions that may
    subsequently be submitted for registration.)

-- 
Andrew.