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dslyesterday at 10:57 PM4 repliesview on HN

Maybe the standards documents you are used to differ from RFCs, but here is the official language:

   3. SHOULD   This word, or the adjective "RECOMMENDED", mean that there
      may exist valid reasons in particular circumstances to ignore a
      particular item, but the full implications must be understood and
      carefully weighed before choosing a different course.
SHOULD is effectively REQUIRED unless it conflicts with another standards requirement or you have a very specific edge case.

Replies

jcelerieryesterday at 11:27 PM

I just don't understand how you get from the text you pasted to "required". Nowhere does it say that anything is effectively required. Words have meaning.

show 3 replies
BeetleBtoday at 12:10 AM

Nope, it's exactly what it says: RECOMMENDED.

Any time any document (standards or otherwise) says something is recommended, then of course you should think it through before going against the recommendation. Going from their verbiage to:

> SHOULD is effectively REQUIRED unless it conflicts with another standards requirement or you have a very specific edge case.

is a fairly big leap.

HDThoreauntoday at 3:53 AM

This very clearly says that SHOULD is not effectively REQUIRED at all, and is fact nothing more than RECOMMENDED. Really not sure how you misinterpreted this so badly

andoandotoday at 12:50 AM

required means it must exist, not that it may or may not exist depending on the reason