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Be very careful on relying on reference documents. I'm currently working on a government project and I've collected no less than 20 "referenced" documents from NIST, FIPS and RFCs. There are back references 3 or 4 levels deep. I've spent hours trying to find the information that I need and there are often contraditions and ambiguities between the reference documents. Though it's more work, a complete and accurate top level specification can be worth it's weight in gold over a hodge-podge of loosely tied reference documents.