on 2007-02-19 21:57 Spencer Dawkins said the following:
I have been selected as the General Area Review Team (Gen-ART)
reviewer for this draft (for background on Gen-ART, please see
http://www.alvestrand.no/ietf/gen/art/gen-art-FAQ.html).
...
3. Fragment Identification Syntax
The syntax for the fragment identifiers is straightforward. The
syntax defines four schemes, 'char', 'line', 'match', and hash (which
can either be 'length' or 'md5'). The 'char' and 'line' schemes can
be used in two different variants, either the position variant (with
a single number), or the range variant (with two comma-separated
numbers). The 'match' scheme has a regular expression as its
parameter, which must be specified as a string with escaped
semicolons (because the semicolon is used to concatenate multiple
fragment identification scheme parts). The hash scheme can either
use the 'length' or the 'md5' scheme to specify a hash value.
Spencer: The use of the word "hash" to describe the length of a resource in
characters violates the Principle of Least Astonishment. Could "length" and
"md5" not be grouped together, just for ease of understanding?
I read an earlier versions of this draft a couple of years ago, and sent
some feedback to the author. I clearly remember being astonished when
reading Section 3.2, "Hash Sums", and finding 'length' in there. I would
also, as Spencer, appreciate a separation of the description of hashes
(MD5) and length robustifiers (maybe into separate sections), and the
associated changes in the rest of the draft needed to not use 'hash' as
a term which includes the fragment length indication.
Henrik
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