Subject: Re: Comments on draft-ietf-conneg-feature-syntax-01.txt

From: Graham Klyne <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 07 Nov 1998 10:01:21 +0000

At 19:05 04/11/98 +0100, Koen Holtman wrote:
[...]
>>This memo usually means "the document you are reading".  If it has
>>another meaning here, we need different language.
>
>Well, if 'this memo' is the internet draft, my objection is
>essentially unchanged except for an added level of indirection,
>because the draft defines quality values by pointing to 2068.  If you
>define q values by pointing to 2068, your definition is one which
>*does* make the actual numbers significant, so you should not be
>saying that it does not.

Good point.

I'll take a look at the phrasing, because that was not the intent here.

#g

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Graham Klyne
([email-masked])

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From: Graham Klyne <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 13 Nov 1998 14:44:09 +0000

At 08:23 13/11/98 -0500, Al Gilman wrote:

>I also believe it might be useful to state explicitly that q=0
>should be treated as "categorically unacceptable."

I know we've both expressed an opinion on this.  I shall try to be more
precise about my view in the hope of eliciting a consensus:

(a) I don't believe that adding such a constraint would add any value to
the -syntax- draft as it stands.

(b) I don't believe that the absence of such a constraint in any way limits
what can be achieved by implementations that may wish to apply this view.

(c) to make this statement would 'fix' a relationship between the q-value
and the predicate which I think could create some additional unnecessary
complexity.

(d) making this statement would impose additional constraints on the form
of semantics that could be applied to q-values.  Specifically, the expression:

    (& (foo);q=0 (bar);q=n )

would be constrained to have a q-value of zero.  This may be reasonable,
but I don't see that it's always necessary.

In making statements (c) and (d), I am assuming that your statement means
that any expression of the form:

    (foo);q=0

must be interpreted as equivalent to (FALSE).

#g

------------
Graham Klyne
([email-masked])

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From: Graham Klyne <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 13 Nov 1998 14:44:14 +0000

(& (foo);q=0 (bar);q=n )

    (foo);q=0

#g

------------
Graham Klyne
([email-masked])