-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 (2010/12/04 1:07), Bob Hinden wrote: > 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.
Don't have much further to say, but I agree with Brian, Bob and others that this was a decision by the WG and not an error. Regards, Seiichi > > >> 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 >>> -------------------------------------------------------------------- >>> > > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.11 (MingW32) iEYEARECAAYFAkz8PLcACgkQcrhTYfxyMkKUDACfSHHVAAsdwM+I47/PMYgHAd9F b6kAn2+0VjV8+1NcwGcKRK6RchPnOZLX =JQrj -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -------------------------------------------------------------------- IETF IPv6 working group mailing list ipv6@ietf.org Administrative Requests: https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ipv6 --------------------------------------------------------------------