eap Mailing List: Issue on eap-keying: capitalization of RFC 2119 requirements key words

[Florent Bersani (florent.bersani]

   Description of issue: capitalization of RFC 2119 requirements key words

   Submitter name: Florent Bersani

   Submitter email address: florent.bersani [at] francetelecom.com

   Date first submitted: 10/04/2004

   Document: Keying Framework

   Comment type: 'E'ditorial

   Priority: 2 May fix

   Section: Various for instance 6.1.1

   Rationale/Explanation of issue:

As I find very unclear the authoritative status of eap-keying, I am very 
   sensitive to the use of RFC 2119 requirements key words.

However, I find that such key words abound in eap-keying and their 
capitalization vary... sometimes erratically IMHO

For instance, in section 6.1.1, the "must" in the first bullet is lower 
case "o It must specify how to derive the EMSK" whereas the "MUST" in 
the latter bullets are upper case "o The key material used for the EMSK 
MUST be computationally independent of the MSK and TEKs."...

I tried to reread very carefully eap-keying to spot out any other 
offending miscapitalizations... but this task is daunting :-( see (*)

Anyway, after rereading RFC 2119, I am not sure that capitalization is 
"mandatory" (for instance in RFC 2119, section 6 we MAY ;-) read:
"they MUST only be used where it is
actually required for interoperation or to limit behavior which has
potential for causing harm (e.g., limiting retransmisssions) For
example, they must not be used to try to impose a particular method
on implementors where the method is not required for" so "MUST" and 
"must not" have different capitalizations in RFC 2119).

My view is that capitalization should at least be used to draw attention 
to important excerpts

Nevertheless, I have at least been annoyed by the additional following 
occurences in annex F.1

"Note that the length of the AMSK must be specified
   by the application."

"The application data is optional and may not be
   used by some applications."

(*) my word count script gives me the following results:

must 29
MUST 61

may 136
MAY 8

required 26
REQUIRED 2

shall 0
SHALL 2

should 17
SHOULD 24

recommended 4
RECOMMENDED 15

optional 11
OPTIONAL 1


Requested change

Capitalize the key words mentioned here above i.e. at least in 6.1.1 and F.1