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RE: RFC 2119 terms, ALL CAPS vs lower case

"Lee Howard" <lee@asgard.org> Thu, 17 May 2012 17:19 UTC

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From: Lee Howard <lee@asgard.org>
To: 'Dave Cridland' <dave@cridland.net>, 'IETF-Discussion' <ietf@ietf.org>
References: <562A61B995B24BD854A4D154@[192.168.0.2]> <m262bwchr9.wl%randy@psg.com> <08ab01cd3372$65934110$30b9c330$@olddog.co.uk> <tslaa18w21n.fsf@mit.edu> <4FB3E99D.1040606@stpeter.im> <4FB3EDB8.60809@gmail.com> <m2mx57c2g5.wl%randy@psg.com> <22965.1337200180.525898@puncture>
In-Reply-To: <22965.1337200180.525898@puncture>
Subject: RE: RFC 2119 terms, ALL CAPS vs lower case
Date: Thu, 17 May 2012 13:19:07 -0400
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> -----Original Message-----
> From: ietf-bounces@ietf.org [mailto:ietf-bounces@ietf.org] On Behalf Of
Dave Cridland
> Consider:
> 
> "An octet may contain 0-255".
> "An octet contains 0-255".
> "An octet might contain 0-255" - or it might not?
> "The Foo octet MUST lie between 0 and 127 inclusive; that is, the highest
bit MUST NOT
> be set."
> "A valid Foo octet lies between 0 and 127 inclusive; that is, the highest
bit is never set."

We do not improve clarity by making sentences harder to read.
We should avoid rfc2119 language where possible, to be clear, but not at the
expense of
clarity.

* Could be read as normative: "Always do this, unless you can explain why
you can't."

Lee

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