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I think there are a lot of people out there unaware of RFC's (Request for Comments). I know what they are at a logical level, but can anybody give a good description for a new developer? Also, sharing some resources on how to use and read them would be nice.
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Request for Comments (RFCs) are mainly used to develop a "standard" network protocol, a function of a network protocol or any feature which is related with network communication. RFCs (Request for Comments) are the basic building blocks of today's modern computer networks and the internet.
Today there are over 8,500 RFCs whose publication is managed through a formal process by the RFC Editor team.
Only some RFCs are standards. Depending on their maturity level and what they cover, RFCs are labeled with different statuses: Internet Standard, Proposed Standard, Best Current Practice, Experimental, Informational, and Historic.
Definition: The Request for Change (RFC) is formal request for the implementation of a Change. The RFC is a precursor to the 'Change Record' and contains all information required to approve a Change. Further information is added as the Change progresses through its lifecycle.
The term comes from the days of ARPANET, the predecessor to the internet, where the researchers would basically just throw ideas out there to, well, make a request for comments from the other researchers on the project. They could be about pretty much anything and were not very formal at the time. If you go read them, it’s pretty comical how informal they were.
Now, there are more standards about what goes in RFC's and you can't get an RFC published until you have met strict guidelines and have done extensive research. They are pretty much reserved for well researched network standards that have been approved by the IETF.
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From http://linux.about.com/cs/linux101/g/rfclparrequestf.htm
The name of the result and the process for creating a standard on the Internet. New standards are proposed and published on the Internet, as a Request For Comments. The proposal is reviewed by the Internet Engineering Task Force (http://www.ietf.org/), a consensus-building body that facilitates discussion, and eventually a new standard is established, but the reference number/name for the standard retains the acronym RFC, e.g. the official standard for e-mail message formats is RFC 822.
See also: RFC Wikipedia Article
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