[Standards] Re: Proposed XMPP Extension: Explicit Mentions

Now that we agree on that, why should there be a specification for (a) and one that does (a)+(b)? Wouldn't it be both easier and cleaner if the specification that does (b) would not also have (a), if we have an independent specification for (a) anyway?

Well partly because I don't think we want b without a to be a thing you can do. But also because it's so cheap to have begin/end attributes. If the app also supports other ways of doing a it can consider them redundant.