Subject: [apps-discuss] Citations for terms from RFC 5598 (Internet Mail Architecture)

From: Barry Leiba <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 25 Apr 2012 08:41:20 -0400

RFC 5598, "Internet Mail Architecture", is a handy document -- an
Informational doc that's on the approved-downref list, and which
contains explanations for many terms that we use in talking about
email infrastructure, along with a clear picture of how the pieces all
fit together.

It frequently comes up in document reviews, both from
directorates/review teams and from the IESG, that people wish we'd
expanded the terms taken from RFC 5598 on first use.  We freely use
terms such as "MTA", "MSA", "MUA", "ADMD", and so on, and readers
aren't always sure whether *that* term comes from 5598 or not.
Further, someone with a basic idea of how things work might not have
to look to 5598 to understand "Message Submission Agent" or
"Administrative Management Domain", but is likely not to get the
abbreviations without heading to the reference.

I think it's reasonable for us to establish a convention for citing
from RFC 5598 that goes something like this:

1. Put a reference in the terminology section that says that a number
of terms in this document come from RFC 5598.  Something like this
works:

   1.1 Terminology

      The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
      "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
      document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119 [RFC2119].

      A number of terms used in this document are explained in "Internet Mail
      Architecture" [RFC5598], and an understanding of the concepts in RFC 5598
      is important for readers of this document.

2. On first use of any particular term, spell it out, abbreviate it,
and cite it.  Do this for *every* term we get out of 5598.  So on
first use of MTA we say, "when a Message Transfer Agent (MTA)
[RFC5598] receives a connection...".  If we also use "MSA", we *also*
say, on first use, "when connecting to a Message Submission Agent
(MSA) [RFC5598], it is important to...".  And then, "if the recipient
is in the same Administrative Management Domain (ADMD) [RFC5598],
then...".  And so on, for all the terms.

This may mean that we have a lot of citations to 5598, one for each
term we use out of there, but I think it will make it easier for
people to read and understand the email-related documents.

Comments?

Barry