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Re: [Json] Generators

Carsten Bormann <cabo@tzi.org> Mon, 10 June 2013 14:00 UTC

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From: Carsten Bormann <cabo@tzi.org>
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Date: Mon, 10 Jun 2013 16:00:01 +0200
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To: John Cowan <cowan@mercury.ccil.org>
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Subject: Re: [Json] Generators
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On Jun 10, 2013, at 15:22, John Cowan <cowan@mercury.ccil.org> wrote:

> But a conditional of the form
> "The program MUST do such-and-such if it can", which is what we have
> here, needs to be rewritten as "The program SHOULD do such-and-such."

That is not quite what SHOULD means:

3. SHOULD   This word, or the adjective "RECOMMENDED", mean that there
   may exist valid reasons in particular circumstances to ignore a
   particular item, but the full implications must be understood and
   carefully weighed before choosing a different course.

So "SHOULD" = "MUST unless it can be determined appropriate not to", and we typically try to explain those circumstances and implications in the draft.

The fact that you cannot do such-and-such may not at all make it appropriate not to do such-and-such!
(After all, not being able to do something is typically the result of a design decision, and that decision simply may have been inappropriate in the first place; the SHOULD does not exculpate you here.)

Grüße, Carsten

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