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Re: [rtcweb] Uppercase question for RFC2119 words

2016-03-30 14:01:41
On 30 March 2016 at 18:59, Barry Leiba <barryleiba(_at_)computer(_dot_)org> 
wrote:

That such a rule differs from natural English -- which does not
typically
alter semantics based on case -- and that most readers of RFCs will not
have
such detailed knowledge of RFC2119 nor read RFCs with the care such a
rule
demands, my question BARRY and adam and EveryOne Else, is what makes
anyone
think that such a rule must (MUST?) ensure proper reading of RFCs so as
to
distinguish between normative portions and advisory portions?

Sorry, I think that's nonsense. RFC 2119 and its capitalized keywords are
well known to anyone reading any specifications, these days. I think we
can
actually assume a priori knowledge of RFC 2119, for the most part. What I
think would be far more surprising is this notion that the keywords,
noted
and referenced in capitals, also have the same precise meaning and force
when written normally.

I agree with the first and third sentences of what Dave Cridland said,
but I think we have to be a little careful about the second.  What I
think we can assume is an a priori knowledge of some of what 2119
says: that there are these capitalized key words that have special
meanings.  But it's quite clear from reviewing a lot of documents (one
of the fun things one gets to do as AD) that many writers do not know
how 2119 actually defines those.  I see significant misunderstandings
about "SHOULD" and "MAY" all the time, examples of which I can give
you if you like.  And one of my favourites is when someone used
"RECOMMENDED", I questioned it in a comment, and the response was,
"Yes, maybe we should switch that to 'SHOULD'."


For future reference, I tend not to zero-index my sentences. ;-)

I think that MUST/SHOULD/MAY (the former two tempered by NOT) are
well-understood, although the strength of SHOULD is usually underestimated.
OPTIONAL is probably obvious enough (though its implications may not be),
and SHALL/RECOMMENDED are uncommon enough that they're probably not
understood nearly as well.


As a complete side thing, I wonder how this all seems to
German-speakers, as German uses initial caps for all nouns.  I wonder
if anyone even notices if someone fails to do that.  I wonder if it
becomes puzzling, perhaps in some instances.

Barry