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Date: Fri, 08 Aug 2014 06:25:43 -0700 (PDT)
From: Ned Freed <ned.freed@mrochek.com>
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Cc: Ned Freed <ned.freed@mrochek.com>,
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Subject: Re: [abnf-discuss] Case-sensitive string constants in ABNF?
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> On 8/6/14 2:29 PM, Ned Freed wrote:
> >> Has there ever been consideration of supporting case-sensitive string
> >> constants in ABNF?
> >
> >> While the case-insensitive ones are more often than not what is needed,
> >> some protocol designs have places where case-sensitivity is desired. It
> >> is possible to accomplish this now, using numeric byte values. But it is
> >> hard, both to read and to write.
> >
> > Agreed.
> >
> >> I see no *technical* problem with supporting both kinds. The only
> >> questions are:
> >> - Is it a good idea to support both? (Or is *not* supporting them
> >>    intentional, to discourage case-sensitive syntaxes?)
> >
> >> - What syntax to use in ABNF to denote the two types, while remaining
> >>    backward compatible.
> >
> >> Regarding the syntax, a straightforward approach would be to define
> >> case-sensitive strings using a new delimiter. Single quote is a likely
> >> candidate since it is currently unused.
> >
> > It's the obvious thing, but I worry it will be confusing.

> Yeah, it worries me too. People are already confused about quoted
> strings being case insensitive.

> >> Another possibility for syntax would be to allow an optional prefix on
> >> char-val. For example: %S"abc", %I"abc".
> >
> > I like the idea of using prefixes. I don't especially care about the
> > syntax.

> I like the concept. It puts the choice in your face without being overly
> inconvenient. And the % syntax seems to fit in well with what is there.

> But it isn't obvious what type indicator characters to use to denote
> case sensitivity and the converse. The %S and %I were the first things
> that came to mind, but I don't love them.

> It also occurred to me that there might be other string modifiers that
> people might want. E.g., unicode. Once you get to unicode it might not
> make sense to talk about case-insensitive comparison.

There may be. But unicode opens the door to all sorts of other considerations.
There's all kinds of mechanism surrounding case, case conversion, and
case sensitivity. Absent specific requirements, I don't think it makes
sense to try and design such a mechansim to add unicode support to
ABNF.

				Ned

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