All,
I have had a few conversations in this area and can see that the length
specification for textWithLanguage and nameWithLanguage is a little loose.
The description below applies to name as well as text.
One interpretation comes from first reading the definition for 'text'.
"A text attribute is an attribute whose value is a sequence of zero or more
characters encoded in a maximum of 1023 ('MAX') octets. "
One interpretation is that the "super type" 'text' is limited to 1023
octets. Therefore, the total length of 'textWithLanguage' is limited to
1023 octets. The 'language' portion of 'textWithLanguage' is limited to 63
octets. The result is that the length of the 'language' portion of
'textWithLanguage' "eats away" at the length of the 'text' portion. The two
error cases, with respect to length, are the length of 'language' exceeds 63
octets and the combined length of 'language' and 'text' exceeds 1023 octets.
Another interpretation is from the definition of 'textWithLanguage' itself.
The 'textWithLanguage' definition contains:
"The 'textWithLanguage' attribute syntax is a compound attribute syntax
consisting of two parts: a 'textWithoutLanguage' part plus an additional
'naturalLanguage' "
This verbiage together with the length definition of 'textWithoutLanguage of
1023 octets seems to imply a different conclusion. The total length of an
attribute value of type 'textWithLanguage' would be 1086. (This ignores the
lengths types and attribute name portions of the encoding) In this
interpretation the 'language' portion does not "eat away" at the length of
the 'text' portion. The resulting two error cases, with respect to length,
are the length of 'language' exceeds 63 octets and the length of 'text'
exceeds 1023 octets
Which interpretation is correct?
I favor the second interpretation since it simplifies the transformation
between the two forms of 'text'.
The resolution should be clarified in the IIG and moved to the MOD on the
next iteration.
Pete
Peter Zehler
XEROX
Xerox Architecture Center
Email: Peter.Zehler at usa.xerox.com
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