Subject: [MMUSIC] Review of draft-ietf-mmusic-rid-07

From: Peter Thatcher <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 1 Sep 2016 15:01:16 -0700

All of the semantics look good to me.  But there are so wording/terminology
things I think could be better.

1.  The things added to an a=rid line are typically called "restrictions"
and "constraints".  But in one place they are called "characteristics".
Further, one of the "constraints" is "depend", which isn't a restriction at
all, and more like a characteristic.  So which is it?   I think that it
would make sense to call them generally "characteristics" (or a similar
word, like "properties") and say that the most common use of these
"characteristics" is "restrictions" or "constraints".

2.  Sometimes the text says "constrain" and "constraint", other times
"restrict" and "restriction".  Can we just pick one and use it
consistently?  I've "a=rid" is a "restriction identifier", then I'd suggest
we go with restrict/restriction, but I'd be fine either way.  As long as
we're consistent around one set of words.

3.  There are a bunch of rules that end up saying to remove/discard a
line.  Sometimes the text says to remove, sometimes to discard, and
sometimes even "discard and not include".  Can we pick one and be
consistent?  I'd prefer "discard and not include", or maybe just "discard",
both of which are more clear to me than "remove".

4.  There is a phrase which says "If the offerer wishes the answerer to
have the ability to specify a constraint, but does not wish to set a value
itself, it MUST ...".  Is it normal to write MUST sentence in the form "if
you want X, you MUST do Y?"  Isn't it more correct to say "if you want X,
you MAY do Y"?  It's the answerer of the empty constraint that MUST
interpret it a certain way, but there's no reason that the offerer MUST set
the empty constraint.  That's just one thing it may choose to do.

All small stuff, really.

---

From: Bernard Aboba <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 1 Sep 2016 17:03:30 -0700

Comments below.

> On Sep 1, 2016, at 15:01, Peter Thatcher <[email-masked]> wrote:
> 
> All of the semantics look good to me.  But there are so wording/terminology things I think could be better.
> 
> 1.  The things added to an a=rid line are typically called "restrictions" and "constraints".  But in one place they are called "characteristics". Further, one of the "constraints" is "depend", which isn't a restriction at all, and more like a characteristic.  So which is it?   I think that it would make sense to call them generally "characteristics" (or a similar word, like "properties") and say that the most common use of these "characteristics" is "restrictions" or "constraints". 

[BA] I also found the use of the word "constraints" odd, partly because this word is already used in Media Capture with a somewhat different meaning. Characteristics or properties is a better term.