Date: 3 Jan 1997 08:25:22 -0000
Message-ID: <19970103082522.838.qmail@koobera.math.uic.edu>
From: "D. J. Bernstein" <djb@koobera.math.uic.edu>
To: drums@cs.utk.edu
Subject: Re: case sensitivity

> > Comments are case-sensitive
> What does that mean?

``Blah is case-insensitive'' means that parsers are required to
interpret blah without regard to case.

``Blah is case-sensitive'' means that there's no such requirement.

Comments are case-sensitive.

> Neither of these issues are addressed in the current proposal.

Of course not. A transition protocol is always just as complicated as
the starting protocol. We don't get the benefit of simpler specs and
simpler implementations until the end of the transition.

> And they do not seem to be very
> burdensome "complexities", at least in practice.

The burden on implementations is high enough that new implementors screw
it up. Witness FaxGate. The burden on the spec, at least if we insist on
a correct grammar, is even higher.

Why shouldn't we fix this? There's essentially no cost. The only motive
I see for the status quo is economics---it raises the barrier slightly
for new implementors.

---Dan
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