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Re: RFC 2119 terms, ALL CAPS vs lower case

ned+ietf@mauve.mrochek.com Thu, 17 May 2012 02:24 UTC

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From: ned+ietf@mauve.mrochek.com
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Date: Wed, 16 May 2012 19:22:42 -0700
Subject: Re: RFC 2119 terms, ALL CAPS vs lower case
In-reply-to: "Your message dated Wed, 16 May 2012 17:26:40 -0400" <3AAB0DB9-5E51-4117-B2BB-851700FD9CDC@gmail.com>
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To: Ralph Droms <rdroms.ietf@gmail.com>
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> On May 16, 2012, at 5:22 PM 5/16/12, ned+ietf@mauve.mrochek.com wrote:

> >>>   The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
> >>>   "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
> >>>   document are to be interpreted as described in [RFC2119] when they
> >>>   appear in ALL CAPS.  These words may also appear in this document in
> >>>   lower case as plain English words, absent their normative meanings.
> >
> >> i like this a lot
> >
> > I agree. In fact I just incorporated it into the media types registration
> > update.

> To be sure of meaning and help confusion avoidance, I would prefer that the
> key words not appear in the document in lower case and that authors use the
> suggested replacement words (or break out the thesaurus?).

Preferring it is one thing; I'm OK with that. Making it some sort of
hard-and-fast rule is another matter entirely. We have too many of those
as it is.

				Ned

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