On Mon, 2 Mar 1998, David P. Kemp wrote:
From: Paul Hoffman / IMC <phoffman(_at_)imc(_dot_)org>
I made the opposite choice: the above goes in without the "--" and people
who have compilers that already know UTF8String can comment it out.
This is not a big issue, but I lean with those who would have the
module as published be a valid ASN.1 specification, requiring that
the "--" comment chars be removed to allow it to be compiled with the
tools currently in use.
Yes, nearly everyone will have to uncomment the definition. But I
believe that is preferable to publishing something known to be incorrect.
I too am supportive of the S/MIME having at most the commented definition
-- UTF8String ::= [UNIVERSAL 12] IMPLICIT OCTET STRING
and requiring that this be removed by anyone using a compiler that
benefits from its removal. Without the comment the ASN.1 is NOT legal
1988 syntax; nor is it legal 1997 syntax; nor is it legal in a union of
1988 and 1997 syntax. It is not. While individual tools are free to use
such syntax as a means of supporting UTF8String, that should be an
individual tool matter, and such illegal syntax that violates every
version of ASN.1 that has ever been has no place in S/MIME.
Further, I recommend the following definition for the likes of
ESEPrivacyMark:
ESEPrivacyMark ::= CHOICE {
pString PrintableString (SIZE (1..ub-privacy-mark-length)),
utf8String [0] IMPLICIT UTF8String (SIZE (1..ub-privacy-mark-length))
}
It DOES NOT introduce an octet hole, fully aligns us with correct
implementations of UTF8String in the future, while at the same time making
it possible for ASN.1 tools that do not support the above illegal
reference to [UNIVERSAL 12] to change the "UTF8String" to OCTET STRING and
thus function until such a time as native support for UTF8String is added
to the tool.
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