Subject: [Xml-sg-cmt] documenting limits on line length (for text output)

From: Alice Russo <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 1 Feb 2021 09:11:04 -0800

Hi,
As mentioned on the call today, the outcome of a v3-related thread from months ago was:

There is element-specific handling in text output (72-char line limit) as follows:
A) For <sourcecode>, the line limit is 69 chars. (It does not "outdent" into the left margin.)
B) For <artwork>, the line limit is 72 chars. (It does "outdent" into the left margin.)

If I understood correctly, the rationale for (A) was that inserting line breaks is possible, and there exists notation for added line breaks specific to various formal languages. The rationale for (B) was that it matches v2 handling.

An effect is that when converting v2 to v3 (because the <sourcecode> element did not exist in v2 XML -- it was all <artwork>), the RPC is adding line breaks to 72-char <sourcecode> to meet the (A) limit above (or asking for the authors' assistance in doing so).

It would be helpful to have (A) and (B) written somewhere publicly. Perhaps:
https://xml2rfc.tools.ietf.org/xml2rfc-doc.html#name-artwork-2
https://xml2rfc.tools.ietf.org/xml2rfc-doc.html#name-sourcecode-2

Thanks,
Alice