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Re: SHOULD vs MUST (was Re: Review of draft-ietf-geopriv-http-location-delivery-07)

Joe Abley <jabley@ca.afilias.info> Tue, 24 June 2008 18:52 UTC

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From: Joe Abley <jabley@ca.afilias.info>
To: Dave Cridland <dave@cridland.net>
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Subject: Re: SHOULD vs MUST (was Re: Review of draft-ietf-geopriv-http-location-delivery-07)
Date: Tue, 24 Jun 2008 14:51:59 -0400
References: <20080525020040.4DE5A5081A@romeo.rtfm.com> <F66D7286825402429571678A16C2F5EE03ADF950@zrc2hxm1.corp.nortel.com> <20080620195947.29D0B5081A@romeo.rtfm.com> <9D9CF008-7350-4831-8F21-E08A0A7B255E@insensate.co.uk> <7706.1214216391.855029@peirce.dave.cridland.net>
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On 23 Jun 2008, at 06:19, Dave Cridland wrote:

> A final point is that actually phrasing it as "MUST X or Y" is  
> problematic since English lacks the possibility of parenthesis for  
> precendence - hence a stronger binding, such as MUST X unless Y, is  
> preferable.

Preferable to me would be to avoid such ambiguity altogether by  
breaking things down into simpler atoms ("If Y then MUST X; if !Y then  
MAY X", or whatever the context supports). More complex constructions  
seem certain to lead to confusion to native readers of English, never  
mind those whose more usual tongue is something else.


Joe

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