> That document would then be sent out to various parties that might have an interest in using this protocol who then would supply their feedback and as a resul

> That document would then be sent out to various parties that might have an interest in using this protocol who then would supply their feedback and as a result of that a more complete version of the original document would be released. And so on until the resulting protocol was considered mature enough for implementation. Is that so? The early IETF process was, "Rough consensus and running code." Protocols were implemented first, then revised and described in RFCs later, weren't they?