Re: Changing enum labels considered harmful

[Juergen Schoenwaelder <schoenw@ibr.cs.tu-bs.de>]

>>>>> C M Heard writes:

Mike> I think it was a mistake for the SMI to allow labels associated
Mike> with existing enumerations and bit positions to be changed when
Mike> a module is revised, and I believe that the practice should be
Mike> forbidden in revisions of IETF MIB.  If others on the mreview
Mike> list agree with this, I'll put some words to that effect in the
Mike> MIB author's and reviewer's guide, and Juergen or Frank might
Mike> want to consider adding an equivalent item to the on-line SMI
Mike> errata list.

I think it is fine to explain the problem in the guide and to
recommend to not change labels. Whether this is indeed considered to
be a bug in the SMIv2 specification probably requires more concensus
and we will get back to the question how much a language should
allow/disallow and how much concrete usage guidelines should
allow/disallow.

/js

-- 
Juergen Schoenwaelder    <http://www.informatik.uni-osnabrueck.de/schoenw/>