Hello Nicholas,

On Monday January 30 2017 15:04, you wrote to Kees van Eeten:

 KE>> I think you are documenting common practice in FTN or only
 KE>> Fidonet.

 NB> Why not cover both when you can?

Because:

o It is not our job. Fidonet is Fidonet and the Internet is the Internet.
  The FTSC documents Fidonet. Period.

o Mixing Fidonet en Internet specs is confusing. The 00-24 for the hours
  illustrates that. "24" may be valid for some applications in the Internet,
  it definitely is not valid in Fidonet.
  FTSC docs should not try to document everything. They should be a guide to
  programmers saying: "if you do it like this, it will work."

 NB> Since there is plenty of Fidonet software that integrates Fidonet
 NB> with the internet.

Actually there is few "Fidonet software" that "integrates" Fidonet with the
Internet. Yes, Fidonet uses the InterNet as a transport medium. It uses the
InterNet to transport files from one node to another. But it does not
/integrate/ with it.


 KE>> Programmers are stubborn people with strong opinions on how
 KE>> things should be done. The documentation should keep them at bay
 KE>> to ensure interconnectivity.

 NB> The programmers are the ones creating current practice. Nothing is
 NB> keeping them at bay at all. We follow their lead and document what
 NB> they do as "current practice". Not the other way around.

It is an interaction, not a one way street. Once current practise has been
documented as a guide to programmers - "if you do it like this, it will work", 
they are implicitly told "if you are stubborn and do it different, in a way
that conflicts with the standard, it will probably not work and your efforts
will be wasted".


Cheers, Michiel

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