🚀 go-pugleaf

csg@pyramid.pyramid.com (Carl S. Gutekunst) writes:

>It's also worth mentioning that the documents available in the experiment
>were not useful.  Many of the most important were missing (like almost all
>of the X series), and most of those that were present had such severe
>formatting problems and missing pieces that they could not be trusted. 

>The reality is, if you are implementing CCITT and ISO protocols, you are
>going to have to shell out serious bucks. If you are not implementing, and
>just want to know how the stuff works, then get a copy of Marshall Rose's
>"The Open Book." You won't be able to read the standards, anyway.

It's also worth mentioning that the non-availability of ISO documents for
students and university members who just want to have a quit look at a
special detail is one of the reasons, why ISO standards aren't as popular
as other standards which ARE available over the net.

This especially true for small standards (e.g. ISO formats for day and time,
ISO format for geographical positions) were the costs and time needed to get
the documents are an order of magnitude worse than the costs and time for
implementing them.

An other example: I spent the last 3 weeks with implementing an asynch
LAPB / X.25 prototype for MS-DOS. It took me longer than 3 weeks to get
the people here to order the ISO specifications. For every new detail
(e.g. another HDLC-XID-parameter field for address resolution), I have to
wait some weeks and search people who spent $50 for a few ISO pages.
ISO really isn't encouraging people who want to implement public domain
software according to their standards in their spare time!

I want to have the complete data that will also be used to produce the paper
documents in one single format (including graphics, formulas, tables, ...),
e.g. SGML.

Is this really impossible in the information technology age?

Markus

---
Markus Kuhn, Computer Science student -=-=- University of Erlangen, Germany
Internet: mskuhn@immd4.informatik.uni-erlangen.de  |  X.500 entry available
Don't worry over what other people are thinking about you. ----------------
---------- They're too busy worrying over what you are thinking about them.