Subject: [Ltru] -01 nits

From: Frank Ellermann <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 26 Apr 2005 05:13:04 +0200

Hi, some observations in draft -01 in no particular order:

* [7] (Unicode 4) is not used.
  Please delete this normative reference, [6] is good enough.

* In chapter 2.1 "UTF-16LE" is not explained.
  Please add [RfC 2781] as informative reference.

* [13] (IETF-ICANN MoU about IANA)
  Please delete this "normative" reference to an MoU-FYI.
  Maybe use [RfC 2028] (BCP 11) as a reference to explain "IANA",
  you already have it as [10] elsewhere.

* [16] (RfC 3978) is not used.
  Please delete this normative reference, the boilerplates
  work without it.

* In chapter 3.1 replace the URL of XML 1.0 3rd ed. by the
  generic URL of the latest XML 1.0 edition.

* Several "2-character code", "3-character code", "4-character subtags":
  Using "alpha-2 code" etc. would be clearer and shorter where the ABNF
  dictates 2ALPHA etc.

* There's still a *("-" extlang) in the ABNF, it should be at most one
  ["-" extlang].

* In chapter 2.1.1:  "In practice, this limits most tags to a sequence
  of four subtags, and thus a length of 35 (excluding any extensions":
  This limit is 8+(1+4)+(1+3)+(1+8)= 26 without extlang and 4 subtags.
  With extlang it's only 25 = 3+(1+3)+(1+4)+(2+3)+(1+8).

* In chapter 2.1.1:  "Any such limitation MUST be clearly documented,
  and such documentation SHOULD include the disposition of any longer
  tags  (for example, whether an error value is generated or the
  language tag is truncated).  If truncation is permitted it SHOULD
  NOT permit a subtag to be divided."

  Proposed new text:  "Any limitation SHOULD be clearly documented.
  Tags SHOULD NOT be truncated, but removing complete subtags right
  to left MAY be permitted."

* In chapter 2.2.1:  7. The single character subtag 'i' is used by
  some grandfathered tags (see Section 2.2.8) such as "i-klingon"
  and "i-bnn".
  Please replace the "almost" deprecated i-klingon by i-default.

* In chapter 2.2.2:  Please replace all "subtags" by "subtag".
  Please remove "3. There MAY be any additional number of
  extended language subtags."  At most one extlang, otherwise
  it doesn't fly with RfC 2231 / 2047.

* In chapter 2.2.7:  "Users who wished to utilize SIL Ethnologue".
  Please delete this example, it muddies the water for ISO 639-3.

* The ABNF layout in 3.1 is ugly, the main ABNF is better, please
  use the same xml2rfc trick (artwork ?) as in 2.1:

  registry   = record *( "%%" CRLF record )
  record     = 1*( field-name *SP ":" *SP field-body CRLF )
  field-name = 1*( ALPHA / DIGIT / "-" )
  field-body = *( ASC-char / LWSP )
  ASC-char   = %x21-25 / %x27-7E / UNI-char    ; AMPERSAND is %x26
  UNI-char   = "&#x" 2*6HEXDIG ";"

  This fixes the reported "no %% in the first / last line" problem.
  The minimal length of a field-name should be one, not zero.
  It also replaces the undefined NUM by DIGIT, and %x2D by "-".

  In theory a field-name starting or ending with a "-" would be a
  bad idea, and a DIGIT in a field-name is also strange, but OTOH
  we don't want to reinvent "ldh-string" for a known set of names.

* Please delete the File-Date example or get rid of the first "%%":
  %%
  File-Date: 2004-06-28
  %%

* Another proposal for the registry ABNF:

  registry    = record *( "%%" CRLF record )
  record      = 1*( field CRLF )
  field       = type / timestamp / reference / explanation
  type        = ( subtagttype / tagtype ) 1*SP tagtext
  subtagtype  = "Language:" / "Extlang:" / "Script:"
              / "Region:" / "Variant:"
  tagtype     = "Grandfathered:" / "Redundant:"
  timestamp   = ( "File-Date:" / "Added:" / "Deprecated:" ) 1*SP date
  reference   = ( "Canonical:" / "Suppress-Script:"
                / "Recommended-Prefix:" ) 1*SP tagtext
  explanation = ( "Description:" / "Comment:" ) 1*SP text
  date        = 4DIGIT "-" 2DIGIT "-" 2DIGIT    ; see RfC 3339
  tagtext     = 1*( ALPHA / DIGIT / "-" )       ; note no WSP
  text        = *SP ":" *( ASC-char / LWSP )    ; note folding WSP
  ASC-char    = %x21-25 / %x27-7E / UNI-char    ; AMPERSAND is %x26
  UNI-char    = "&#x" 2*6HEXDIG ";"

  This is quite different from the old ABNF, no more SP before the
  COLON, at least one SP after the COLON, no "folding" for a date or
  tagtext, "folding" only for a (long) Description: or a Comment:,
  no UNI-char or special char in tagtext, a date syntax that needs
  no further explanation (one example will do).

  Based on this ABNF chapter 3.1 could be much shorter and clearer.
  It's not more necessary to dig through 3.1 to find all field names.

IMHO you could submit snapshots of complete drafts more often,
and you also don't need Randy or Martin for a future -02, etc.

                              Bye, Frank

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From: Frank Ellermann <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 26 Apr 2005 05:47:58 +0200

> text        = *SP ":" *( ASC-char / LWSP )    ; note folding WSP

| text        = *( ASC-char / LWSP )

I wasn't sure where to get rid of the *SP ":" *SP, and forgot
to update the "text" of my first attempts.

---

From: Martin Duerst <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 26 Apr 2005 16:30:51 +0900

>IMHO you could submit snapshots of complete drafts more often,

Very much so, please. The closer we get to final, the more
drafts, at least in general.

 >and you also don't need Randy or Martin for a future -02, etc.

Not unless it's supposed to be a last call draft, or there
is otherwise some thorny issue (that absolutely needs to be
solved for publishing the draft).

Regards,    Martin.

---

From: "Mark Davis" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 26 Apr 2005 09:05:06 -0700

>   to left MAY be permitted."

I don't see why we should change this. I don't yet see any reason to allow
protocols that claim conformance to this RFC to truncate without any
documentation of that fact.