RE: can charsets be quoted.

On Wednesday Feb 7, 2001, Paul Leach wrote:

> I believe that the word token is being used two different ways.
> This way:
> 	value                   = token | quoted-string
> and in this sentence:
> 	HTTP character sets are identified by case-insensitive tokens.
> 
> The first one is a formal ABNF definition, the second is not. I.e.,
> there was no intent to say that char-set IDs have to be "tokens" as that
> is specified in the HTTP ABNF.
> 
> I would say that it is perfectly legal for them to be quoted.

I agree.  But I think the spec could be clearer in two ways.
I think the ABNF should be removed from 3.4 (since it's not
intended) and I think the word "token" should be replaced
with the word "name" in all cases in section 3.4.  The IANA
does not refer to charset tokens, but rather charset names.
See RFC 1700 or
http://www.isi.edu/in-notes/iana/assignments/character-sets

Howard

Received on Thursday, 8 February 2001 10:54:14 UTC