[rfc-i] The page length of the first page in the RFC series

[Bob Braden]

  *> Hi,
  *> 
  *> Something that I at least have a really hard understand is why the first 
  *> page of the RFCs has one more line than the rest of the pages. Are there 
  *> any good reasons or is it a historical artifact?
  *> 

We believe it is a historical (an historical?) artifact.  Many years
ago the RFC Editor settled on the ms macro package for nroff, and its
property seems to be that it does not print a header on the first page
but it does include a blank line.  Rather a pragmatic outcome, but
the decision was made over 20 years ago, when the Internet had a few
thousand hosts.

Bob Braden

  *> I would appreciate an answer this. Both for myself and to have a good 
  *> explanation for my WG participants when we discuss this.
  *> 
  *> Cheers
  *> 
  *> Magnus Westerlund
  *> 
  *> Multimedia Technologies, Ericsson Research EAB/TVA/A
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