[NNTP] Re: New NNTP drafts approaching IETF Last Call

[Clive D.W. Feather]

Mark Crispin said:
> The text uses such terms as "letter" and "digit" apparently presupposing 
> the ASCII meanings of these terms, for example, in 3.3.1 we have "a 
> capability line can only begin with a letter."

"letter" occurs in three places in the current draft:

  Section 2:
    A "keyword" MUST consist only of US-ASCII letters, digits, and the  
    characters dot (".") and dash ("-"), and MUST begin with a letter.

  Section 3.3.1:
    Each capability line consists of:
    o  The capability label, which is a keyword indicating the
       capability.
    [...]
    Note that a capability line can only begin with a letter.

  Section 8.4.2:
    [...] the first 7 lines MUST (except for the case of letters) be
    exactly:
   
       Subject:
       From:
       Date:
       Message-ID:
       References:
       :bytes
       :lines

In the full context, I believe the text doesn't need changing.

As for digits, section 2 already says:

    "digit" refers to the octets %x30-39.

We also say elsewhere:

    This syntax extends and refines the descriptions elsewhere in this
    specification, and should be given precedence when resolving apparent
    conflicts.

and the syntax is clear on these matters.

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