RE: Enumerated INTEGER - start with zero or one (0 or 1) ?

["C. M. Heard" <heard@pobox.com>]

On Tue, 31 Dec 2002, Wijnen, Bert (Bert) wrote:

> > Here is what I put into the latest under-construction
> > version of the Guidelines document:
[ ... ]
> Looks good Mike, My proposal is to add a line that states:
>      Such a valid reason should be documented in the DESCRIPTION clause.

OK, how about this:

   - For integer-valued enumerations:

     - INTEGER is REQUIRED;
     - Integer32, Unsigned32, and Gauge32 MUST NOT be used.

   Note that RFC 2578 recommends (but does not require) that integer-
   valued enumerations start at 1 and be numbered contiguously.  This
   recommendation SHOULD be followed unless there is a valid reason to
   do otherwise, e.g., to match the values assumed by external data, and
   in such cases the reason for the deviation SHOULD be documented.  For
   a good example see the SyslogSeverity TC [SYSLOG-MIB].

                             .
                             .
                             .
[SYSLOG-MIB]
            Pape, B., "Syslog Device Configuration MIB", <draft-ietf-
            syslog-device-mib-01.txt>, work in progress.

> Although... is that adding another CLR ??

It is, but ...

> Well, it is a a lowercase "should".... ;-)

... I think that an uppercase SHOULD is OK with the example (it was
the subject of a question by Joan Cucchiara that showed up on the
mibs@ops.ietf.org list last August, and the words about matching
the values assumed by external data were adapted from Andy Bierman's
recent message on this subject).

Mike