Subject: Re: W-25 Remove MUST from UID in 4.8.4.7

From: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 24 Aug 1999 15:34:04 GMT

Doug:
I disagree that we should just remove the MUST from the UID section in 
iCalendar. This may be hair-splitting, but rather than just remove the 
MUST, we need to change it to "can". The UID can be present. In addition, 
we need to add the following so that we don't look the intent of the 
original iCalendar contribution.
"The UID property is required in iCalendar objects that wish to identify a 
particular  calendar component in a calendar store. Unambigous 
identification of particular calendar component may also include reference 
to the SEQUENCE, RECURRENCE-ID and DTSTAMP properties."
The purpose of UID is to differentiate one calendar component from 
another. I agree that in some cases, such as when retrieving arbitrary 
calendar information, you may not need the UID in the iCalendar object. 
However, this does not remove the need to make sure that this section in 
the iCalendar standard clarifies the role of this property.
-- Frank

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From: Alexander Taler <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 24 Aug 1999 12:18:45 -0400

[email-masked] wrote:
> 
> Doug:
> 
> I disagree that we should just remove the MUST from the UID section in iCalendar. This may be hair-splitting, but rather than just remove the MUST, we need to change it to "can". The UID can be present. In addition, we need to add the following so that we don't look the intent of the original iCalendar contribution.
> 
> "The UID property is required in iCalendar objects that wish to identify a particular  calendar component in a calendar store. Unambigous identification of particular calendar component may also include reference to the SEQUENCE, RECURRENCE-ID and DTSTAMP properties."
> 
> The purpose of UID is to differentiate one calendar component from another. I agree that in some cases, such as when retrieving arbitrary calendar information, you may not need the UID in the iCalendar object. However, this does not remove the need to make sure that this section in the iCalendar standard clarifies the role of this property.
> 
> -- Frank

This looks right.  Replace the line "The property MUST be 
specified . . ." with "The property MAY be . . .".  Anyway, 
this fixes an inconsistency in iCalendar where the ABNFs 
describing the components say that the UID is optional 
(as Bruce pointed out).

Add text Frank's text indicating the use of the UID.

Alex