Re: [sidr] base64 line breaks and draft-ietf-sidr-rfc6490-bis-04.txt

[Rob Austein <[e-mail]>]

At Tue, 4 Aug 2015 07:06:22 -0400, Sandra Murphy wrote:
> 
> Speaking as document shepherd.
> 
> The IETF Last Call for  draft-ietf-sidr-rfc6490-bis-04.txt  ended on 23 July 2015.
> 
> One issue of substance arose - permitting or forbidding line breaks
> in the base64 encoding of the trust anchor, and, if permitted, at
> what max line length.

I know I'm going to regret this, but somebody has to say it.

This is not a substantive issue.  This is an example of:

   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson%27s_law_of_triviality

In this case it's even sillier than usual, because we have multiple
interoperable implementations in the field and there is no real
problem here that needs to be solved.  So the bikeshed was built years
ago and we are now arguing about what color it should have been
painted in some alternate universe.

> Preferences for Richard?s option #2 (allow but do not mandate line
> breaks) or for Richard?s option #3 (mandate line breaks)?  Note that
> option #3 means we have to settle on a max line length.

Option #2 matches the running code.

Absent some pressing need to make TALs fit on punch cards, the only
benefit that option #3 brings is the opportunity to declare running
code retroactively out of spec for trivial reasons.