Pete Resnick wrote:
RFC 2822 not withstanding, were the following ever legal instantiations
of <#element>?
, element ,
element, element,
, , ,
822 is not clear on this point to me, but it seems like those might be
allowed. My obs- lists currently don't allow them. Thoughts?
1. Empty List
Wherever this construct is used, null elements
are allowed, but do not contribute to the count of elements
present. That is, "(element),,(element)" is permitted, but
counts as only two elements. Therefore, where at least one ele-
ment is required, at least one non-null element must be present.
Default values are 0 and infinity so that "#(element)" allows any
number, including zero; "1#element" requires at least one; and
"1#2element" allows one or two.
I read the above as at least implying that an empty list that nonetheless
contains commas is allowed.
2. White Space Around Commas
3.4.2. WHITE SPACE
Note: In structured field bodies, multiple linear space ASCII
characters (namely HTABs and SPACEs) are treated as
single spaces and may freely surround any symbol.
and
specials = "(" / ")" / "<" / ">" / "@" ; Must be in quoted-
/ "," / ";" / ":" / "\" / <"> ; string, to use
/ "." / "[" / "]" ; within a word.
I read this combination as rather explicitly allowing white space around a
comma.
I'll note that all of this matches what I would have expected -- and even
wished that 822 had been more clear about.
The goal with the lexical model and rule for white space was to allow its use
to be extremely free. If there was anywhere it might get used, without the
ability to do parsing, the goal was to permit it.
d/
--
Dave Crocker
Brandenburg InternetWorking
bbiw.net