RE: RFC 2119 terms, ALL CAPS vs lower case

[Yaakov Stein <[e-mail]>]

> And of course if we had a slightly richer publication format we could 
> use, oh, say, underline, bold, italics and maybe even a special font 
> for normative terms, but I guess I am dreaming decades ahead...

I was waiting to see if someone was going to bring this up.

In Roman law, the way you capitalized something in a document could have significant consequences,
for example, incorrect use of Capitis Diminutio could change you from a free person into a slave!

OTOH, the Uniform Commercial Code requires certain terms be rendered "conspicuous",
which may be accomplished though capitalization, or using bold face, or a larger font, or contrasting color, etc.

The intervening 2000 years enabled the UCC to exploit more modern typesetting technologies.

But the IETF is still living in Roman times.

Y(J)S