Re: Compatibility wit Netnews (was I-D ACTION:draft-resnick-2822upd-01.txt)

Pete Resnick wrote:
>> Pete Resnick writes:
>>> I'd rather stick with the liberal syntax for now, and maybe add a note
>>> that says, "You SHOULD be conservative in what you generate, as 
>>> NO-WS-CTLs, quoted-pairs, and specials are known to cause heartburn in
>>> some environments (cf. USEFOR)."
>> 
>> +1. Proposed text: «It is RECOMMENDED to use only A-Z, a-z, 0-9, ".",
...
> So, now I'm beginning to get uneasy about using SHOULD/RECOMMENDED in here.
> If we want normative language like the above, we should really

I was going to quibble about using 'SHOULD' because it is so forceful, and
that a 'MAY' would suffice, but you are raising the larger question of whether
it is appropriate to have normative text at all.

I think that the real-world need is satisfied adequately while avoiding the
pitfalls of being normative, in this case:  Add advisory text that notes the
issue and describes how to resolve it.  But make a point of using no normative
text to do this.

In effect, the issue here is defining a sub-set profile that permits
gatewaying between Internet mail and Netnews.  A thoroughly laudable goal, but
not one for RFC2822bis...

d/

-- 

   Dave Crocker
   Brandenburg InternetWorking
   bbiw.net