This is an archived snapshot of W3C's public bugzilla bug tracker, decommissioned in April 2019. Please see the home page for more details.

Bug 8289 - MEX: misuse of RFC2119 terms
Summary: MEX: misuse of RFC2119 terms
Status: CLOSED REMIND
Alias: None
Product: WS-Resource Access
Classification: Unclassified
Component: MetadataExchange (show other bugs)
Version: FPWD
Hardware: All All
: P2 normal
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Gilbert Pilz
QA Contact: notifications mailing list for WS Resource Access
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2009-11-13 22:38 UTC by Gilbert Pilz
Modified: 2010-03-17 11:25 UTC (History)
1 user (show)

See Also:

Attachments

Description Gilbert Pilz 2009-11-13 22:38:44 UTC 
The RFC 2119 terms "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
"SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED",  "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" are meant to
apply to specific requirements and behaviors within the context of a
specification. They are *not* meant to refer to general concepts and actions.

To quote RFC 2119: "Imperatives of the type defined in this memo must be used with care and sparingly.  In particular, they MUST only be used where it is actually required for interoperation or to limit behavior which has potential for causing harm (e.g., limiting retransmisssions)"

WS-MetadataExchange contains a number of cases where RFC 2119 keywords are misused. A changebar copy of WS-MEX will be sent to the mailing list and
linked in the comments below.
Comment 1 Robert Freund 2010-03-17 11:25:52 UTC 
resolved on 2010-03-16 with proposal at http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-ws-resource-access/2010Mar/0031.html