RFC 115

(part 1 of 2, more coming bestie 🧚)

SOME NETWORK INFORMATION CENTER POLICIES ON HANDLING DOCUMENTS 🎀

okay so this is RFC 115, and it's giving Network Working Group vibes 💅 It's by R. Watson and J. North, both at Stanford Research Institute (ARC), with NIC 5822 listed, dated 16 April 1971. The title block doesn't list a category or status, and it doesn't say it obsoletes or updates anything 🫶

INTRODUCTION ✨

so the Network Information Center (NIC) is all about making info flow smoothly between sites on the Network, and to and from outside stations whose work makes them valuable participants in the Network dialog 🦋 NIC cares about both the techniques for the flow and making the info itself better. this doc describes some parts of how NIC supports info flow, plus some suggestions for how Network participants can help out 💖

anything NIC handles is available to any Network participant 👑 everything NIC generates is unclassified, with no distribution limits beyond what staff and budget size dictate. if an originating party sends something to NIC for recording or distribution, it's presumed unclassified and without distribution limits too. and if a submitted document has a statement that seems to limit distribution, quotation, or citation, it's presumed not to apply to how NIC handles it 🌸

NIC NUMBER 🍓

one big job for NIC is making records of RFCs, formal NIC-related manuals and reports, Network memos, other Network informational items, and other items of interest to participants. then it indexes them so they can be recalled when needed 🔥

each informational item gets a serial number from NIC 🧚 the serial number has no intrinsic meaning, and it's not necessarily even an indication of sequence of issue. it's a unique identifier though, so you can use it to refer to the item in later communications, to help with indexing, and to allow numeric filing of documents 💅

the NIC number has advantages in online dialog that aren't yet demonstrable around the Network 🦋 but participant cooperation in applying one when a document is originated is important, lowkey a must-have vibe 🙈

THE NIC CATALOG 💜

info relevant to the Network shows up in lots of forms, like technical reports, RFCs, brief network memos, journal articles, and letters ✨ giving each one a NIC number makes referencing them way easier. to record the item a NIC number refers to, a description of each item gets coded using a set of standard data elements (author, title, etc.) and entered as an online system (NLS) statement into a machine file 🎀

here's an example of a statement with typical coded data elements:

      (A5480) *a1 James E. White #2 org *b2 University of California
      at Santa Barbara #3 Computer Research Laboratory #5 Santa
      Barbara, California *c1 An NCP for the ARPA Network #6 142p.
      *d1 21 December 1970 *f1 r *f2 o *rl UCSB CRL 12 *31 ARPA #6 AF
      19628-70-0-0314 *w2 3-11-71 *y1 Describes program designed and
      implemented at Santa Barbara node of ARPA Network, written in
      assembly language and implemented on 360/75.  Discusses
      interface with hardware, software, and operator. *y3 Host-
      Interface protocol; Host-IMP protocol; User-NCP protocol;
      Host-Host protocol; Host-IMP messages, IMP-Host messages *z1
      all *z2 NIC *z3 new *

so the group of files at ARC holding these statements about NIC items and other info items is the Master Catalog 📁 and the term NIC Catalog refers to the machine file you get by collecting the statements coded *z2 NIC in the Master Catalog 🧚

the data element *z1 shows which Stations hold a copy of an item ✨ not every NIC-related item gets sent to Stations, and in the future Stations are expected to submit lots of documents to NIC for cataloging that aren't held by other Stations. main character energy for sure 👑

NIC CATALOG LISTINGS AND INDEXES 🌈

programs were written at ARC to collect, sort, analyze, and format the statements and their data elements, so they can produce catalogs and indexes like the ones in the Current Catalog of the NIC Collection, NIC (5145,) 💖

the Current Catalog of the NIC Collection is a functional document, as explained in Branch 3 below 🦋 at any time it holds the current issue of a bibliography of items from the NIC Catalog (called a NIC Catalog Listing), plus author and keyword indexes 🫶

here are examples of entries in the Catalog Listing and the indexes, using the statement from above 💅

      Catalog Listing by Author:

         An NCP for the ARPA Network

              James E. White (University of       5480 White
              California at Santa Barbara)

              21 December 1970

              Describes program designed and
              implemented at node of ARPA Network,
              written in assembly language and
              implemented on 360/75.
              Discusses interface with hardware,
              software, and operator.

       Catalog Listing by NIC number:

          An NCP for the ARPA Network             5480

               James E. White (University of
               California at Santa Barbara)

               21 December 1970

               Describes program designed and implemented
               at node of ARPA Network, written in
               assembly language and implemented on
               360/75. Discusses interface with
               hardware, software, and operator.

         Author Index:

            Subject: Education Status, memo to  5456  Westlund
            An NCP for the ARPA Network         5480  White
            NWG/RFC 78 (NCP Status Report       5199  White

         Titleworld Index:

            Natural Communication with Computers  5639  Natural
            An NCP for the ARPA Network           5480  Network
            Proposal for a Network Interchange    4752  Network

a NIC Catalog Listing will show which items are held in the Station Collections, either in a separate listing or with a notation next to each reference 🧚 a number catalog or index works as a shelf list of documents held by a Station 📚 and the indexes aren't limited to the Station Collections, since they lead to the entire Catalog ✨

PROCEDURES FOR REVISION MATERIAL ✨

Okay bestie, so original manuals and other functional document materials get reproduced and distributed by NIC just like every other Network publication 📚💅. For anything you grab through NIC, NIC will attempt to receive and make distribution of updates 🦋.

NIC also wants the process of inserting revisions and recording changes to be as easy and foolproof as possible 🫶. The user shouldn't just get the current materials. They should also be able to tell which version they're holding, and refer to updates uniquely 🔥. The stuff below is copied from the procedure instructions NIC wrote for its own use 📋. These procedures are also recommended to Network participants for their use in preparing revision material to be sent to NIC 💜.

Update conventions 🌸

Substantial revision of a bound document, or of more than a few pages of a loose leaf document:

A new document will be published, with a new NIC number, and will bear a notation under the number on the title page and/or cover, e.g.,

NIC 5772
supercedes NIC 5621

Few pages inserted or revised in a looseleaf or corner-stapled document:

Each new or revised page will bear the original document number, with a notice of revision, e.g.,

NIC 5742
3-10-71

Inserted pages will be numbered to fit into the existing document, e.g., pages 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, may be inserted between pages 5 and 6.

Deleted pages will be replaced by a single page indicating the deletion, e.g.,

Pages 7-12 deleted, 3-25-71

A new table of contents and/or title page will be issued bearing the revision notice. In addition, at the time of each revision a page or pages will be prepared and issued which indicates all additions, deletions, and revisions which bring the document up to date 🧚.

Revisions will be made only by substitution, addition or deletion of a full page or more. NIC will not revise its own publications by lists of errata, and strongly recommends against their use by others in the Network 🙈. However, when NIC receives such lists of errata, it will reproduce and distribute them with suggestions to Station Agents for recording and inserting them 💖.

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Distribution and transmittal procedures 🍓

The transmittal letter accompanying a set of revision material and the revision material itself constitute a separate document. A copy of that is filed at NIC, where a new copy can be provided at any time 🗂️.

The transmittal letter will indicate the appropriate information: document number of the revision material, date, document number of the publication being updated, its date, and, when practicable, information on the changes made in the text ✨.

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Revision notation in the printed Catalogs and their indexes 📖

Catalog entry 💜

Supercession

The data element containing "superceded by NIC xxxx" will be formatted to appear at the beginning of the citation of the superceded document.

The data element containing "supercedes NIC xxxx" will be formatted to appear following the abstract in the citation.

Partial revision

The data element containing the note of revision will be formatted to appear following the abstract.

Entries in author, titleworld, or other indexes 🌈

Supercession

The data element covering supercession will be the only text in the entry for the superceded document.

Supercession will not be indicated in the entry for the superceding document. Main character energy for the newer doc, no notes needed 💅

Partial revision

Partial revision will not be indicated in the index entry 🦋.

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And that's the end of the document, bestie 🎀 Here's the little machine-readable note they left at the bottom:

   [ This RFC was put into machine readable form for entry ]
          [ into the online RFC archives by Jay Kominek 2/99 ]

Periodt, that's the whole RFC 🌈👑