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

[Mark Crispin]

On Thu, 24 Mar 2005, Clive D.W. Feather wrote:
> "letter" occurs in three places in the current draft:

Sorry, you can not get away with using a term without defining it.  Not 
even "US-ASCII letter" is good enough; and the other two places don't even 
go that far.

> As for digits, section 2 already says:
>    "digit" refers to the octets %x30-39.

This is what is needed for "letter".  However, make sure that you define 
it properly.

You've already referred to UTF-16.  Is U+0030 a "digit"?  I suspect not, 
since "digit" would not appear in context where UTF-16 would appear.  But 
you need to say that, and you need to consider that in the context of 
"letter" as well.

Specifically, it appears that a "digit" (and perhaps a "letter") is always 
an "octet", and not necessarily a "character".

Don't be deluded into thinking that this is all "obvious" and doesn't need 
to be stated.  When it comes to a correct interpretation of an RFC, the 
word of the editor of that RFC is *not* considered authoritative.  Your 
only chance to adjudicate is with explicit text in the document.

-- Mark --

http://staff.washington.edu/mrc
Science does not emerge from voting, party politics, or public debate.
Si vis pacem, para bellum.