Re: [Ltru] Re: [psg.com #1061] eliminate (or proscribe) Private UseTags

["Randy Presuhn" <randy_presuhn at mindspring.com>]

Hi -

> From: "John.Cowan" <jcowan at reutershealth.com>
> To: <ltru at ietf.org>
> Sent: Friday, July 08, 2005 9:46 AM
> Subject: Re: [Ltru] Re: [psg.com #1061] eliminate (or proscribe) Private UseTags
>

> Doug Ewell scripsit:
>
> > I do not favor either removing or further discouraging private-use tags
> > or subtags in "x-".  I'll have more to say about this later.
>
> +1
...

It's clear from the posts so far that "eliminate" won't get consensus
support, due to legacy concerns. So, please, let's narrow the discussion
to whether the text makes the risks / limitations on the use of them
sufficiently clear.  There are currently two proposals for text:

(1) "Private-use subtags require private agreement between the parties
    that intend to use or exchange language tags that use them and they
    MUST NOT be used in content or protocols intended for general use
    unless it can be guaranteed that they will not inadvertently show up
    in parsing agents used by other parties with private-use agreements
    that coincedentally employ the same alphanumeric sequence."

(2) "Private-use subtags require private agreement between the parties
    that intend to use or exchange language tags that use them. Great
    caution SHOULD be used in employing them in content or protocols
    intended for general use. Private-use subtags SHOULD respect the
    general format contraints. Even used in a private context, general
    libraries are legitimate in only using the part of each subtag which
    matches the general ABNF [or in disregarding the subtags wich
    does not match the general ABNF]. Private-use subtags are
    simply useless for information exchange without prior arrangement."

As a technical contributor, I rather like (1), even though its proposer
says it was deliberately written to sound ridiculous.  I can't support
(2) in its current form, but could live with a modified version of (2)
that I'll call (2a):

(2) "Private-use subtags require private agreement between parties
    intending to use them. Use great caution if employing them in
    content or protocols intended for general use. Private-use subtags
    MUST conform to the format contraints specified in the ABNF.
    Private-use subtags are useless for information exchange without
    prior arrangement."

Randy




_______________________________________________
Ltru mailing list
Ltru at lists.ietf.org
https://www1.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ltru