rfc

5 definitions found

rfc - Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (26 May 2007) :

  Request For Comments
  RFC
  
     <standard> (RFC) One of a series, begun in 1969, of numbered
     Internet informational documents and standards widely
     followed by commercial software and freeware in the
     Internet and Unix communities.  Few RFCs are standards but
     all Internet standards are recorded in RFCs.  Perhaps the
     single most influential RFC has been RFC 822, the Internet
     electronic mail format standard.
  
     The RFCs are unusual in that they are floated by technical
     experts acting on their own initiative and reviewed by the
     Internet at large, rather than formally promulgated through an
     institution such as ANSI.  For this reason, they remain
     known as RFCs even once adopted as standards.
  
     The RFC tradition of pragmatic, experience-driven,
     after-the-fact standard writing done by individuals or small
     working groups has important advantages over the more formal,
     committee-driven process typical of ANSI or ISO.
  
     Emblematic of some of these advantages is the existence of a
     flourishing tradition of "joke" RFCs; usually at least one a
     year is published, usually on April 1st.  Well-known joke RFCs
     have included 527 ("ARPAWOCKY", R. Merryman, UCSD; 22 June
     1973), 748 ("Telnet Randomly-Lose Option", Mark R. Crispin; 1
     April 1978), and 1149 ("A Standard for the Transmission of IP
     Datagrams on Avian Carriers", D. Waitzman, BBN STC; 1 April
     1990).  The first was a Lewis Carroll pastiche; the second a
     parody of the TCP/IP documentation style, and the third a
     deadpan skewering of standards-document legalese, describing
     protocols for transmitting Internet data packets by carrier
     pigeon.
  
     The RFCs are most remarkable for how well they work - they
     manage to have neither the ambiguities that are usually rife
     in informal specifications, nor the committee-perpetrated
     misfeatures that often haunt formal standards, and they
     define a network that has grown to truly worldwide
     proportions.
  
     rfc.net (http://rfc.net/).
     W3 (http://w3.org/hypertext/DataSources/Archives/RFC_sites.html)
     .
     JANET UK FTP (ftp://nic.ja.net/pub/newsfiles/JIPS/rfc).
     Imperial College, UK FTP (ftp://src.doc.ic.ac.uk/rfc/).
     Nexor UK (http://nexor.com/public/rfc/index/rfc.html).
     Ohio State U (http://cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet/top.html)
     .
  
     See also For Your Information, STD.
  
     (1997-11-10)
  

rfc - Jargon File (4.4.4, 14 Aug 2003) :

  RFC
   /R.F.C/, n.
  
     [Request For Comment] One of a long-established series of numbered
     Internet informational documents and standards widely followed by
     commercial software and freeware in the Internet and Unix
  communities.
     Perhaps the single most influential one has been RFC-822 (the
  Internet
     mail-format standard). The RFCs are unusual in that they are floated
     by technical experts acting on their own initiative and reviewed by
     the Internet at large, rather than formally promulgated through an
     institution such as ANSI. For this reason, they remain known as RFCs
     even once adopted as standards.
  
     The RFC tradition of pragmatic, experience-driven, after-the-fact
     standard writing done by individuals or small working groups has
     important advantages over the more formal, committee-driven process
     typical of ANSI or ISO. Emblematic of some of these advantages is the
     existence of a flourishing tradition of `joke' RFCs; usually at least
     one a year is published, usually on April 1st. Well-known joke RFCs
     have included 527 ("ARPAWOCKY", R. Merryman, UCSD; 22 June 1973), 748
     ("Telnet Randomly-Lose Option", Mark R. Crispin; 1 April 1978), and
     1149 ("A Standard for the Transmission of IP Datagrams on Avian
     Carriers", D. Waitzman, BBN STC; 1 April 1990). The first was a Lewis
     Carroll pastiche; the second a parody of the TCP-IP documentation
     style, and the third a deadpan skewering of standards-document
     legalese, describing protocols for transmitting Internet data packets
     by carrier pigeon (since actually implemented; see Appendix A). See
     also Infinite-Monkey Theorem.
  
     The RFCs are most remarkable for how well they work -- they
  frequently
     manage to have neither the ambiguities that are usually rife in
     informal specifications, nor the committee-perpetrated misfeatures
     that often haunt formal standards, and they define a network that has
     grown to truly worldwide proportions.
  

rfc - V.E.R.A. -- Virtual Entity of Relevant Acronyms (June 2006) :

  RFC
         Remote Function Call (SAP, CPIC)
         

  RFC
         Request For Change (PERL, ITIL)
         

  RFC
         Request For Comments (Internet, RFC)