Re: [Last-Call] Genart last call review of draft-ietf-httpapi-link-template-02

[Christer Holmberg <[e-mail]>]

Hi Mark,

>>>> Q2_2: The text says "Parameter values MUST be Strings."
>>>>
>>>> It is unclear what "Strings" means. Does it mean that parameter
>>>> values must be encoded as quoted-strings? If so, why? RFC8288 says
>>>> that parameter values can be encoded both as token and quoted-string.
>>>
>>> S 1.1: "This specification uses the following terms from
>>> [STRUCTURED-FIELDS]: List, String, Parameter."
>>
>> Yes. But, in Section 3.1.2 of [STRUCTURED-FIELDS] there is no
>> restriction that the Parameter value must by String. My question is
>> why you are making that restriction, instead of just allowing the
>> different Parameter value encodings defined in [STRUCTURED-FIELDS]?
>
> Ah. The reason is that allowing any type would require creating a mapping of 
> current values to SF types, and there
> are just too many potential (and undocumented) values already in use to do 
> this.

I don't think that is true. Just because the Parameter syntax allows values to 
be encoded sf-string, sf-token, sf-boolean etc it doesn't mean that you have 
to map each value (existing or new ones) to each of those encodings. If a 
value is defined as a String, then it has to be encoded as a sf-string.

Having said that, I'm fine with having the restriction, because in reality I 
assume the values always will have to be encoded as sf-strings anyway (you 
can't encode a URI as a sf-integer, sf-boolean etc).

Thanks!

Regards,

Christer