Charles Lindsey wrote:
I think it is clear (3 people against it) that the wording would have to
avoid "SHOULD". So here is a suggested wording avoiding 2119 language:
Although in all header fields the CFWS following the colon is optional, it
is customary practice to place at least one SP there; moreover such a SP
is mandatory in Netnews [UESFOR] (and possibly in other protocols).
Continuance of that practice by implementors is encouraged in order to
facilitate interoperability.
That could probably be tuned further.
The text looks fine, but I would like to point out one catch
which could result from placing too much emphasis on that space.
Namely, a header field consists of a header field name, a colon,
and a header field body, i.e. everything after a colon belongs
to a field body, including that [CFWS]. It would be wrong if
it could somehow be undestood that a field body starts only
*after* a space.
Mark