Re: [hybi] [Technical Errata Reported] RFC6455 (3150)

[Peter Saint-Andre <[e-mail]>]

On 3/7/12 5:37 PM, Bjoern Hoehrmann wrote:
> * Peter Saint-Andre wrote:
>> On 3/7/12 5:24 PM, Bjoern Hoehrmann wrote:
>>> If this is true, why did we fail to catch this in time? Was it added
>>> late, for instance? (I would like an analysis to support discussions
>>> whether to create a review team specifically for this kind of formal
>>> syntax error.)
>>
>> As far as I can tell from the erratum, this was a problem with
>> generation of an example, not a syntax error.
> 
> Base64 is a formal language. Unlike interpreting english prose, people
> are not good at spotting problems with formal languages, in the case
> here they would most probably have to use software to verify the code.
> That it occurs in an example does not really matter, people would like-
> ly use the examples in the specification for their first tests, and if
> they come up with different results there is costly confusion, to the
> point that people might change their correct implementation so it re-
> produces the example, which would lead to interoperability problems. I
> think we should try to avoid this kind of costly bug, and understanding
> how we ended up with it, if the report is correct, is the first step.

Understood.

Alexey, can you verify that the example is incorrect?

Peter

-- 
Peter Saint-Andre
https://stpeter.im/