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Re: [ietf-dkim] Re: Use of LWSP in ABNF -- consensus call

2007-05-18 07:04:07


--On Friday, 18 May, 2007 09:00 +0100 Tony Finch <dot(_at_)dotat(_dot_)at>
wrote:

On Thu, 17 May 2007, John C Klensin wrote:

After all <CRLF> Thing <SPACE><CRLF> could case similar
problems if some construction permitted it ...

This is not news. There have for a long time been problems with
significant trailing space, which is why CRLF 1*WSP CRLF in a
header is part of the obs- syntax of 2822, and why
quoted-printable encodes WSP at the end of a line.

... and defining a grammar that would prohibit any
<SPACE><CRLF> construction isn't easy in ABNF for reasons
that have nothing to do with LWSP.

This is simply incorrect. It's trivial to define a whitespace
construction that only allows CRLF at the beginning of a
sequence:

      NTWSP = [CRLF] 1*WSP ; non-trailing white space

Sure.  Except that much, if not most, of our textual
descriptions of these protocols describes lines, and line-like,
constructions as _ending_ in CRLF.  Moving to  "starting in
CRLF" creates a conceptual difference between prose definition
and formal syntax, which strikes me as a bad idea.   Of course,
in the above, since [CRLF] is optional, "1*WSP" alone satisfies
the production as written and still does not prevent
    <CRLF> space space space 
    <CRLF>
unless _all_ productions are written CRLF first... or one relies
on the comment as a restriction.   And a comment as the
restriction --in the prose-- is exactly what has been suggested,
IMO.

      john


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