From: Bruce Lilly (blilly@erols.com)
Date: Mon Sep 23 2002 - 17:26:20 CDT
Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz wrote:
> Of course it does; SHOULD NOT generate, MUST accept positions you for
> the next release of the standard.
While the general idea is sound, that isn't practical as an approach.
A large installed base of software (particularly on the scale of Usenet)
cannot change overnight. "MUST accept" isn't practical as an initial
introduction for that reason
Starting from some baseline, the steps might be:
1. MUST NOT generate, SHOULD accept (no damage caused, prepare
for generation in next release)
2. SHOULD NOT generate, MUST accept (notice to developers that
full implementation is imminent)
3. MAY generate, MUST accept (full implementation)
If there were a pressing need that outweighed interoperability,
step 2 could conceivably be bypassed.