Core lexical syntax Lassi Kortela (25 Sep 2019 10:15 UTC)
Re: Core lexical syntax John Cowan (25 Sep 2019 14:09 UTC)
Machines vs humans Lassi Kortela (25 Sep 2019 14:25 UTC)
Re: Core lexical syntax Alaric Snell-Pym (25 Sep 2019 15:44 UTC)
Re: Core lexical syntax John Cowan (25 Sep 2019 14:13 UTC)
Re: Core lexical syntax John Cowan (25 Sep 2019 19:18 UTC)
Mechanism vs policy Lassi Kortela (25 Sep 2019 19:58 UTC)
Re: Mechanism vs policy Arthur A. Gleckler (25 Sep 2019 21:17 UTC)
Re: Mechanism vs policy Lassi Kortela (26 Sep 2019 07:40 UTC)
Re: Mechanism vs policy John Cowan (25 Sep 2019 22:25 UTC)
Re: Mechanism vs policy Arthur A. Gleckler (26 Sep 2019 01:34 UTC)
Limits, symbols and bytevectors, ASN.1 branding Lassi Kortela (26 Sep 2019 08:23 UTC)
Re: Limits, symbols and bytevectors, ASN.1 branding Alaric Snell-Pym (26 Sep 2019 08:56 UTC)
Re: Limits, symbols and bytevectors, ASN.1 branding John Cowan (27 Sep 2019 02:38 UTC)
ASN.1 branding Lassi Kortela (27 Sep 2019 14:56 UTC)
Re: ASN.1 branding Alaric Snell-Pym (27 Sep 2019 15:24 UTC)
Re: ASN.1 branding Lassi Kortela (27 Sep 2019 18:54 UTC)
Re: Limits, symbols and bytevectors, ASN.1 branding John Cowan (27 Sep 2019 01:57 UTC)
Re: Limits, symbols and bytevectors, ASN.1 branding Lassi Kortela (27 Sep 2019 16:24 UTC)
Re: Limits, symbols and bytevectors, ASN.1 branding John Cowan (27 Sep 2019 17:37 UTC)
Re: Limits, symbols and bytevectors, ASN.1 branding Lassi Kortela (27 Sep 2019 18:28 UTC)
Re: Limits, symbols and bytevectors, ASN.1 branding John Cowan (27 Sep 2019 18:39 UTC)
Re: Limits, symbols and bytevectors, ASN.1 branding Lassi Kortela (27 Sep 2019 18:46 UTC)
Re: Limits, symbols and bytevectors, ASN.1 branding John Cowan (27 Sep 2019 21:19 UTC)
Re: Mechanism vs policy Alaric Snell-Pym (26 Sep 2019 08:45 UTC)
Implementation limits Lassi Kortela (26 Sep 2019 08:57 UTC)
Re: Implementation limits Alaric Snell-Pym (26 Sep 2019 09:09 UTC)
Re: Implementation limits Lassi Kortela (26 Sep 2019 09:51 UTC)
Meaning of the word "format" Lassi Kortela (26 Sep 2019 10:31 UTC)
Stacking it all up Lassi Kortela (26 Sep 2019 11:05 UTC)
Brief spec-writing exercise Lassi Kortela (26 Sep 2019 11:46 UTC)
Re: Brief spec-writing exercise John Cowan (26 Sep 2019 15:45 UTC)
Standards vs specifications Lassi Kortela (26 Sep 2019 21:24 UTC)
Re: Standards vs specifications John Cowan (27 Sep 2019 04:29 UTC)
Re: Standards vs specifications Lassi Kortela (27 Sep 2019 13:47 UTC)
Re: Standards vs specifications John Cowan (27 Sep 2019 14:53 UTC)
Re: Meaning of the word "format" John Cowan (26 Sep 2019 20:59 UTC)
Re: Meaning of the word "format" Lassi Kortela (26 Sep 2019 21:09 UTC)
Re: Meaning of the word "format" John Cowan (27 Sep 2019 02:44 UTC)
Length bytes and lookahead in ASN.1 Lassi Kortela (27 Sep 2019 13:58 UTC)
Re: Length bytes and lookahead in ASN.1 John Cowan (27 Sep 2019 14:22 UTC)
Re: Length bytes and lookahead in ASN.1 Alaric Snell-Pym (27 Sep 2019 15:02 UTC)
Re: Length bytes and lookahead in ASN.1 hga@xxxxxx (27 Sep 2019 15:26 UTC)
(missing)
Fwd: Length bytes and lookahead in ASN.1 John Cowan (27 Sep 2019 16:40 UTC)
Re: Fwd: Length bytes and lookahead in ASN.1 Alaric Snell-Pym (27 Sep 2019 16:51 UTC)
Re: Fwd: Length bytes and lookahead in ASN.1 John Cowan (27 Sep 2019 17:18 UTC)
Length bytes and lookahead in ASN.1 hga@xxxxxx (27 Sep 2019 16:58 UTC)
Re: Length bytes and lookahead in ASN.1 John Cowan (27 Sep 2019 17:21 UTC)
Re: Mechanism vs policy John Cowan (27 Sep 2019 03:52 UTC)
Re: Core lexical syntax Alaric Snell-Pym (26 Sep 2019 08:36 UTC)

Re: Implementation limits Alaric Snell-Pym 26 Sep 2019 09:09 UTC
On 26/09/2019 09:56, Lassi Kortela wrote:

> Once again we agree but Alaric phrased it better than I did :)

Aw *blush*

> Personally, I find most advisory notes in specifications to be a bit of
> a cargo-cult thing.
[...]

Good point. I suppose the reason I'd like such notes not in a format
spec is that the purpose of the spec is to define a line between valid
and invalid values (and, perhaps, to assign some kind of semantics to
valid values as well); there might be a place to mention some likely
implementation limits you might encounter, but it should be in an
appendix IMHO so to make it clear it's not part of the definition of a
valid value.

Also perfectly valid is for a spec to also standardise the declaration
of implementation limits, as part of also specifying what counts as an
implementation. It might say "Valid implementations are welcome to limit
string size, integer range, whether or not they support floats, string
character set, and total message size", thereby clearly placing an
implementation that doesn't support characters as invalid, and giving
users of the format some useful guidance that using long strings, large
integers, floats, unusual character sets, and large messages might cause
problems so should be avoided unless necessary. It also means that
implementations have a defined set of axes to be compared along, which
can be helpful when choosing them.

--
Alaric Snell-Pym   (M7KIT)
http://www.snell-pym.org.uk/alaric/