Message-Id: <v03100701ae99f994b53e@resnick1.isdn.uiuc.edu>
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Date: Mon, 28 Oct 1996 00:16:30 -0600
To: drums@cs.utk.edu
From: Pete Resnick <presnick@qualcomm.com>
Subject: What counts as "obsolete syntax"?

OK, I'm hopefully finishing up draft 00 of the message format (i.e. 822bis)
soon. Before I'm convinced I should let others take a look at it, I have an
organizational question:

It was roughly decided that the syntax would include "obsolete-" rules;
that is, there would be some rules whose names would start with
"obsolete-", and these would be for the MUST accept but MUST NOT or SHOULD
NOT generate type things. I think things like the military time zones and
explicit source routes fall into this category.

And there is the question: There are a bunch of things that are pretty
clearly MUST NOT and SHOULD NOT generates, but there are other things which
we have weakly claimed SHOULD or SHOULD NOT be done. For example, free
insertion of linear-white-space within dates some people have claimed
SHOULD NOT be done. There are other things that we would like to be
generated, but are not completely disgusted that other things are floating
around out on the net. The specifics are not important; the question is,
which of this stuff should be considered "obsolete" and which of it should
be in the regular syntax but noted as SHOULD NOT?

Some rough opinions would be appreciated. Feel free to give examples of
things *you* would like to see in one section or the other, but I emplore
others: PLEASE DON'T SPEND LOTS OF TIME NOW ARGUING ABOUT SPECIFIC
EXAMPLES. I'll take a first cut with my own biases, and then when you get
the document, you'll have plenty of time to complain to your hearts
content. I just want a rough idea of where people think this should be
headed.

BTW: Drag and drop text editing is a *wonderful* tool for RFC writing with
lots of ABNF! :-)

pr

--
Pete Resnick <mailto:presnick@qualcomm.com>
QUALCOMM Incorporated
Work: (217)337-6377 / Fax: (217)337-1980