Subject: Human-readable notation language

From: David Shaw <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 12 Oct 2005 12:04:34 -0400

Section 5.2.3.16 (Notation Data) has this:

     First octet: 0x80 = human-readable. This note value is text, a
                         note from one person to another, and need
                         not have meaning to software.

To my reading, this says more or less, "this is a note from one person
to another except when it isn't".  Especially given such notations as
[email-masked] which are always human-readable, I
suggest this:

     First octet: 0x80 = human-readable. This note value is text.

It's just simpler.

David

---

From: Jon Callas <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 12 Oct 2005 10:57:12 -0700

>      First octet: 0x80 = human-readable. This note value is text.

Yes, but. The reason we have that text in there is because of debates  
over what to do about it. The present text says that software doesn't  
have to anything. Yes, I know that other parts of the document also  
say that *any* subpacket that you don't understand can be ignored  
(modulo critical), but that doesn't mean that the issue won't come  
back again.

That text also more or less says, "You can ignore these any time you  
want to. Really. Yes, really. Uh huh. Trust me, really." It says this  
because that has been needed.

I'm happy to remove it, but I get an "I told you so" when someone  
asks about it later.

     Jon