Prenumbered BIP naming

Prenumbered BIP naming
2014-05-12 17:01 ` Matt Whitlock
  
From: Gregory Maxwell @ 2014-05-12 16:53 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: Bitcoin Development

I've noticed some folks struggling to attach labels to their yet to be
numbered BIPs.

I'd recommend people call them "draft-<main author name>-<what it
does>" like draft-maxwell-coinburning in the style of pre-WG IETF
drafts.



 permalink raw reply	[|nested]
2014-05-12 16:53 [Bitcoin-development] Prenumbered BIP naming Gregory Maxwell

  2014-05-12 17:11   ` Gregory Maxwell
  
From: Matt Whitlock @ 2014-05-12 17:01 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: bitcoin-development

On Monday, 12 May 2014, at 9:53 am, Gregory Maxwell wrote:
> I've noticed some folks struggling to attach labels to their yet to be
> numbered BIPs.
> 
> I'd recommend people call them "draft-<main author name>-<what it
> does>" like draft-maxwell-coinburning in the style of pre-WG IETF
> drafts.

Why is there such a high bar to getting a number assigned to a BIP anyway? BIP 1 seems to suggest that getting a BIP number assigned is no big deal, but the reality seems to betray that casual notion. Even proposals with hours of work put into them are not getting BIP numbers. It's not exactly as though there's a shortage of integers. Are numbers assigned only to proposals that are well liked? Isn't the point of assigning numbers so that we can have organized discussions about all proposals, even ones we don't like?



 permalink raw reply	[|nested]
2014-05-12 17:01 ` Matt Whitlock

  
From: Gregory Maxwell @ 2014-05-12 17:11 UTC ( / )
  To: Matt Whitlock;  Bitcoin Development

On Mon, May 12, 2014 at 10:01 AM, Matt Whitlock <bip@mattwhitlock•name> wrote:
> Why is there such a high bar to getting a number assigned to a BIP anyway? BIP 1 seems to suggest that getting a BIP number assigned is no big deal, but the reality seems to betray that casual notion. Even proposals with hours of work put into them are not getting BIP numbers. It's not exactly as though there's a shortage of integers. Are numbers assigned only to proposals that are well liked? Isn't the point of assigning numbers so that we can have organized discussions about all proposals, even ones we don't like?

It isn't a big deal, but according to the process numbers shouldn't be
assigned for things that haven't even been publically discussed. If
someone wants to create specifications that are purely the product of
they own work and not a public discussion— they should feel free to do
that, but BIP isn't the process for that.  So, since things need to be
discussed, it can be useful to have something to call a proposal
before other things happen— thats all. The same kind of issue arises
elsewhere.