Hi Tobias! :-)

Long time no see.

 TE> Please also don't forget that "may" (in contrast to
"might" and 
 TE> "could") contains a pretty strong commanding element, as
in "you may 
 TE> go now" (said by the earl to his butler, meaning "do go
now!").
Well, true, but the language between "master and servant" is
special anyway, and normally "you may do this" means "you
are permitted to do this", not "do this now".

I'm used to take "may" in standards to mean "this is
recommended, but you're allowed to use other methods", while
"should" means you better have damn good reasons if you do not
use the recommended approach. Then there is "shall" or "must
be", which means "do it or die". At least that's how the
Internet RFCs use these words. I know, this *may not* be what the FTS
writers use.

 TE> Anyway, even if you can defend your line of interpretation, it still 
 TE> is obvious that lots of people will understand the standard in the 
 TE> way Alex and I do, so it is very probably that software programmers 
 TE> have understood it the same way, and that there is software out there 
 TE> which relies on the serialno being a 8 digit hex number. And we don't 
 TE> want to break that software, do we?
There is already software that puts other stuff there. However, what I
don't understand is why any software would even want to look at an MSGID in
a more structured way than "it's just a unique string for the
message". I don't see the need to decompose it into several parts.
Just use the complete string.

Ciao
Pascal

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