Re: Fuzzy words [was Uppercase question for RFC2119 words]

On 3/28/16 9:58 PM, Brian E Carpenter wrote:

> Where we can get into real trouble is if a spec contains should, recommended,
> may and optional *plus* other non-categorical (fuzzy) words like ought,
> encourage, suggest, can, might, allowed, permit (and I did not pull those
> words out of the air, but out of draft-hansen-nonkeywords-non2119). What do
> they mean? It can be very unclear. If a node receives a message containing
> an element covered in the spec by "allowed" instead of "OPTIONAL", is the
> receiver supposed to interoperate or to reject the message?
Yes, this.  There seems to be a sort of MUSTSHOULDMAYphobia.  The
contortions some people will go through to avoid the words when that is
what they mean is, at times, hilarious; but at other times harmful to
interoperability.

Eliot

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