4 ms·

Extend? How do you address it?

• vorpalhex 4y ago
  "Protocol extensions must be able to be implemented by all users of the protocol and may not require a particular providers service but allow any alternative so long as it is protocol compatible" Basically force those extensions to be equally cross-compatible.
  • jacobr1 4y ago
    Though protocols are not law. You can have non-conforming implementations. If these are popular enough (potentially due to $proprietary_thing) then people will just use them. Other services will need to decide if they want to continue to interoperate.
  • karpierz 4y ago
    Two key issues with a rule like that: 1. What forces me to comply with this rule? 2. What does "able to be implemented" mean? In theory, you can re-implement my entire codebase. In practice, you'll find it very difficult to maintain feature parity with me if I repeatedly extend the protocol faster than you can implement it. Especially if I don't publish my code or document the extension or if I simply have more resources available to me (either in terms of server-bandwidth or programmers).