Subject: IPP> Protocol Specification Language

From: Randy Turner <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 13 Apr 1997 14:04:03 -0700

Well, as I expected, I received numerous comments on my proposal to
use ASN.1 as a formal specifier for IPP. One problem though, I didn't
hear any better ideas...

One question I had that might help the decision. I was curious how the
WG felt about designing the core IPP utilizing just text strings, not
necessarily human readable, but defintely machine parsable. If we use
nothing but ASCII text to define our protocol (much like RFC 822 or
MIME)
then its possible that we could get along without a formal syntax
language like
ASN.1. In fact, we could probably get away with a BNF specification for
the whole thing.

One problem I had with doing this was that we were talking about
formalizing data types within the model document. If we stay away from
endian-ness and bit-lengths of data types, then I think we could just
use
BNF. In other words, the more formal we get with regards to the model
document and data types, the more we need a formal way to express
the core IPP protocol in a strict, unambigous manner.

Randy

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From: Carl-Uno Manros <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 13 Apr 1997 14:57:05 PDT

>use ASN.1 as a formal specifier for IPP. One problem though, I didn't

Well, Xerox suggested to use ASN.1 early on in the project to be
"compatible" with DPA, but we backed off after having spoken to the people
in the LDAP project who have spent a lot of wasted time in the IETF on the
subject.

>ASN.1. In fact, we could probably get away with a BNF specification for

I was hoping that this was exactly what we plan to do. Has anybody a
different view on this?

>the core IPP protocol in a strict, unambigous manner.

My previous suggestions for formalizing the syntax was only to the extent
that we can clearly distinguish between text strings that are the subject
of I18N rules vs. any other ones that are not.

Regards,

Carl-Uno

Carl-Uno Manros
Principal Engineer - Advanced Printing Standards - Xerox Corporation
701 S. Aviation Blvd., El Segundo, CA, M/S: ESAE-231
Phone +1-310-333 8273, Fax +1-310-333 5514
Email: [email-masked]