ietf-mta-filters
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Re: Stripping leading/trailing spaces in relational draft

2005-10-11 11:57:15

do you think a change to the base spec for "header" makes it possible
to remove the whitespace stripping rule in "relational"?

Well, I think *all* comparisons should strip leading and trailing white
space, and I don't see a problem with stressing that repeatedly.  In
particular:

1. In my experience it's ALWAYS a glitch when something retains leading
or trailing white space, and I can't recall EVER seeing a case where a
comparison RELIED on that white space remaining (and failing to match a
similar string without it).

2. Not only is it a glitch, but it's a HARD-TO-FIND glitch, which
causes a lot of wasted time.

3. Since "relational" is specifically discussing comparisons, I see
reasonable value, for clarity, in having text there that reminds people
that white space on the ends is ignored.

Barry

--
Barry Leiba, Pervasive Computing Technology  
(leiba(_at_)watson(_dot_)ibm(_dot_)com)
http://www.research.ibm.com/people/l/leiba
http://www.research.ibm.com/spam

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