Subject: BCP 178, RFC 6648 on Deprecating the "X-" Prefix and Similar Constructs in Application Protocols

From: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 25 Jun 2012 10:31:34 -0700 (PDT)

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        BCP 178        
        RFC 6648

        Title:      Deprecating the "X-" Prefix and 
                    Similar Constructs in Application Protocols 
        Author:     P. Saint-Andre, D. Crocker,
                    M. Nottingham
        Status:     Best Current Practice
        Stream:     IETF
        Date:       June 2012
        Mailbox:    [email-masked], 
                    [email-masked], 
                    [email-masked]
        Pages:      13
        Characters: 28393
        See Also:   BCP0178

        I-D Tag:    draft-ietf-appsawg-xdash-05.txt

        URL:        http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc6648.txt

Historically, designers and implementers of application protocols
have often distinguished between standardized and unstandardized
parameters by prefixing the names of unstandardized parameters with
the string "X-" or similar constructs.  In practice, that convention
causes more problems than it solves.  Therefore, this document
deprecates the convention for newly defined parameters with textual
(as opposed to numerical) names in application protocols.
This memo documents an Internet Best Current Practice.

This document is a product of the Applications Area Working Group Working Group of the IETF.

BCP: This document specifies an Internet Best Current Practices for the
Internet Community, and requests discussion and suggestions for 
improvements. Distribution of this memo is unlimited.

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