Brian, On Dec 2, 2010, at 2:33 PM, Brian E Carpenter wrote:
> There is no way this is an erratum. There was a clear choice in the WG > to standardise on lower case. I agree. This was a deliberate decision by the 6man working group, it is not an error. > There could be no objection to a presentation-layer choice to display upper > case in a GUI as a matter of user preference. However, I was surprised by > the suggestion that upper case is better for people with limited visual > acuity. My eyes are well past their use-by date and I haven't found this > to be an issue. There is evidence for upper case being better *for a > given font size*: > http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2016788/ > Therefore, another GUI option could be to use a bigger font size. > > In any case I would object to this erratum being accepted. +1 Bob > > Regards > Brian Carpenter > > P.S. > >> Many other pre-1990 computer science and engineering books show hexidecimal >> non-decimal digits as upper case only > > I would like to report an erratum in that sentence: s/hexidecimal/hexadecimal/ > > More seriously, many computers in the early days only knew how to print > upper case; hence there was a strong bias against lower case in both software > and documentation. It's no surprise that the ancient scrolls use upper case. > However, I have a copy of "Electronic Digital Computers" by Charles V.L Smith > (of the Aberdeen Proving Ground), published in 1959 by McGraw-Hill, which > on page 4 refers to "sexadecimal" notation (you gotta love that) in which > "the first six lower-case letters of the alphabet a, b, c, d, e, and f, > may conveniently be used." I think that trumps the references below in > terms of age. > > On 2010-12-03 10:17, RFC Errata System wrote: >> The following errata report has been submitted for RFC5952, >> "A Recommendation for IPv6 Address Text Representation". >> >> -------------------------------------- >> You may review the report below and at: >> http://www.rfc-editor.org/errata_search.php?rfc=5952&eid=2656 >> >> -------------------------------------- >> Type: Technical >> Reported by: D. Stussy <d.stu...@yahoo.com> >> >> Section: 4.3 >> >> Original Text >> ------------- >> 4.3. Lowercase >> >> The characters "a", "b", "c", "d", "e", and "f" in an IPv6 address >> MUST be represented in lowercase. >> >> >> Corrected Text >> -------------- >> 4.3. Case of Alphabetic Digits. >> >> The digits "A" through "F" in an IPv6 address >> MUST be represented in upper case. User and user >> derived input may be represented using lower case. >> >> >> Notes >> ----- >> Historically from the 1960's, hexidecimal digits other than decimal digits >> are represented by upper case letters. Lower case letters may have become >> acceptable as user input, but such resulted from lazy programmers who >> couldn't manage to hit the shift key on their keyboards. However, lower >> case is not acceptable for digit output. Many early assemblers would not >> even accept lower case as valid input digits except where the radix base >> exceeded 36 (thus exhausting all upper case values). This poor programming >> practice should not be allowed to be codified into any Internet standard. >> >> References: >> - Struble, George W., "Assembler Language Programming: The IBM System/360 >> and /370." Addison-Wesley Publishing Co., 1969 and 1975 (Second Edition), >> Page 6. ISBN 0-201-7322-6 >> - Barden, William Jr., "TRS-80 Assembly-Language Programming." Tandy >> Corporation, 1979, page 14. Library of Congress #79-63607 >> - Leventhal, Lance A., "6502 Assembly Language Programming." Osborne >> McGraw-Hill, 1979 and 1986 (Second Edition), Page 1-4. ISBN 0-07-881216-X >> - Intel Corporation, "Intel486 Microprocessor Family Programmer's Reference >> Manual." 1995, Page 1-8 (Section 1.3.4). No ISBN or LoC #. >> - Cress, Paul, Dirksen, Paul, and Grahm, J. Wesley, "Fortran IV with WatFor >> and WatFiv." Prentice-Hall, 1968 and 1970, Page 245. LoC 74-129241 >> - Mano, M. Morris, "Computer System Architecture." Prentice-Hall, 1982, >> Page 79. ISBN 0-13-166611-8 >> - Higgins, Richard J., "Electronics with Digital and Analog Integrated >> Circuits." Prentice-Hall, 1983, Page 60. ISBN 0-13-250704-8 >> >> However, I also note this ONE source permits mixed case: >> - Kernighan, Brian W. & Ritchie, Dennis M., "The C Programming Language", >> Prentice Hall, 1978 (First Edition), Page 180. ISBN 0-13-110163-3 >> >> Many other pre-1990 computer science and engineering books show hexidecimal >> non-decimal digits as upper case only and NEVER as lower case. However, I >> could not find pages in them defining the lettered-digits as upper case only >> despite their consistent usage of upper case printing. >> >> Instructions: >> ------------- >> This errata is currently posted as "Reported". If necessary, please >> use "Reply All" to discuss whether it should be verified or >> rejected. When a decision is reached, the verifying party (IESG) >> can log in to change the status and edit the report, if necessary. >> >> -------------------------------------- >> RFC5952 (draft-ietf-6man-text-addr-representation-07) >> -------------------------------------- >> Title : A Recommendation for IPv6 Address Text Representation >> Publication Date : August 2010 >> Author(s) : S. Kawamura, M. Kawashima >> Category : PROPOSED STANDARD >> Source : IPv6 Maintenance >> Area : Internet >> Stream : IETF >> Verifying Party : IESG >> -------------------------------------------------------------------- >> IETF IPv6 working group mailing list >> ipv6@ietf.org >> Administrative Requests: https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ipv6 >> -------------------------------------------------------------------- >> -------------------------------------------------------------------- IETF IPv6 working group mailing list ipv6@ietf.org Administrative Requests: https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ipv6 --------------------------------------------------------------------
