IPP Mail Archive: IPP> Re: Use of "-" for range in ABNF: confusion with "-" in rule names?

IPP> Re: Use of "-" for range in ABNF: confusion with "-" in rule names?

Keith Moore (moore@cs.utk.edu)
Thu, 17 Apr 1997 16:54:01 -0400

Messages sorted by: [ date ][ thread ][ subject ][ author ]
Next message: Tom Hastings: "Re: IPP>MOD - conformance [for Friday's 4/18 telecon]"
Previous message: Tom Hastings: "IPP> Use of "-" for range in ABNF: confusion with "-" in rule names?"

> I happen to like ".." a lot, since it is natural and has been used in ASN.1
> and some programming languages. So picking something new for ranges
> will confuse a lot of people who will be seeing ABNF for the first time.
>
> I'm also concerned that changing to "-" for ranges may create confusion
> with "-" in rule names (IPP uses rule names for attribute names and
> attribute value names)

It's not a huge deal as far as coding is concerned -- the immediately
preceding context suffices to distinguish "-" in identifiers from "-"
in ranges -- but I still prefer either ".." or ":" to "-".
Recognizing ".." is no more difficult than distinguishing the two
meanings of "-".

And while I can't think of many other meanings of ".." than to
indicate some sort of range. "-", on the other hand, is quite
overloaded.

Keith

Next message: Tom Hastings: "Re: IPP>MOD - conformance [for Friday's 4/18 telecon]"
Previous message: Tom Hastings: "IPP> Use of "-" for range in ABNF: confusion with "-" in rule names?"