Re: SHOULD vs MUST

[Iljitsch van Beijnum <iljitsch at muada.com>]

On 25 jun 2008, at 9:58, Dave Cridland wrote:

> I think we should be biting the bullet and doing so, however -  
> otherwise we risk having the old behaviour used in new  
> implementations more than it would be otherwise. The primary reason  
> for doing the behaviour you describe is a kind of political  
> correctness, and introduces a political-SHOULD I'm not sure I care  
> for.

This shows that it's very important to avoid the situation where there  
exist implementations of insufficiently mature specifications: once  
those implementations are out there, the protocols must virtually  
forever support them.

This is of course not compatible with "let's ship a 80% workable spec  
and hammer out what's missing in the next version" thinking that is  
not uncommon in the IETF.

--
The trouble with doing something right the first time is that nobody  
appreciates how difficult it was. - Walt West

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