RE: making a display hint RECOMMENDED in non-enum TCs

["Wijnen, Bert (Bert)" <bwijnen@lucent.com>]

Seems a usefull addition to me

Thanks,
Bert 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: C. M. Heard [mailto:heard@pobox.com]
> Sent: dinsdag 22 juli 2003 21:35
> To: Mreview (E-mail)
> Subject: Re: making a display hint RECOMMENDED in non-enum TCs
> 
> 
> On Tue, 22 Jul 2003, Juergen Schoenwaelder wrote:
> > On Tue, Jul 22, 2003 at 12:07:08AM -0700, C. M. Heard wrote:
> > > Unless there is strong support for putting this in (and a 
> > > concrete suggestion both for the text and where to put it), I
> > > intend to leave this out.  I think we have enough rules to
> > > enforce as it is.
> > 
> > In that case, we should probably say somewhere that the common
> > interpretation of an absent DISPLAY-HINT is "d" format.
> 
> In that case the first thing to figure out is where to put this.  
> My sense is that it would best fit in a sub-section of its own;  
> I'd suggest inserting it between 4.6.2 and 4.6.3.  The TOC
> (abbreviated here for clarity) would change thus:
> 
> OLD:
>       4.6 Textual Conventions and Object Definitions
>       4.6.1 Usage of Data Types
>       4.6.2 DESCRIPTION and REFERENCE Clauses
>       4.6.3 Conceptual Table Definitions
>       4.6.4 OID Values Assigned to Objects
>       4.6.5 OID Length Limitations and Table Indexing
> NEW:
>       4.6 Textual Conventions and Object Definitions
>       4.6.1 Usage of Data Types
>       4.6.2 DESCRIPTION and REFERENCE Clauses
>       4.6.3 DISPLAY-HINT Clause
>       4.6.4 Conceptual Table Definitions
>       4.6.5 OID Values Assigned to Objects
>       4.6.6 OID Length Limitations and Table Indexing
> 
> The new section might then look something like this:
> 
> 4.6.3 DISPLAY-HINT Clause
> 
>    The DISPLAY-HINT clause is used in a TC to provide a 
> non-binding hint
>    to a management application as to how the value of an 
> instance of an
>    object defined with the syntax in the TC might be displayed.  Its
>    presence is optional.
> 
>    Although management applications typically default to 
> decimal format
>    ("d") for integer TCs and to ?????? format ("??") for octet string
>    TCs when the DISPLAY-HINT clause is absent, it should be noted that
>    SMIv2 does not actually specify any defaults.  MIB authors 
> should be
>    aware that a clear hint is provided to applications only when the
>    DISPLAY-HINT clause is present.
> 
> Juergen, if the general idea is satisfactory, would you please help
> fill in the questions marks and wordsmith as necessary, and if it is
> not satisfactory, would you please make a counter-proposal?
> 
> Other folks: is it desirable/OK/undesirable to have this in the
> document?
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Mike
> 
>