[SPEC-CHANGE] lang parameter, minor line type changes, clarifications...

[Luke Emmet]

Hello all

On 07-Jun-2020 17:27, solderpunk wrote:
> The definition of link lines now clarifies that clients "MUST NOT
> automatically make any network connections as part of displaying links
> whose scheme corresponds to a network protocol (e.g. gemini://,
> gopher://, https://, ftp://, etc.)".  See section 5.4.2 for full
> details.
>
> <snip>
>
> IMPLICATIONS FOR CLIENT AUTHORS:
>
> <snip>
>
> If your client has been automatically making network connections you
> MUST remove this behaviour and atone for your sins!
>
I think all the changes are sensible, apart from the wording that tries 
to specify client behaviour. It is not for the spec IMO to prescribe the 
client behaviour, rather it should specify the exchange format and 
markup (both of which it does well).

If a client must not make subsequent network requests when interpreting 
a page, does this mean that search engines and crawlers are now 
non-compliant clients? This seems to go much too far.

I would think the "MUST NOT" would be better as a "SHOULD NOT" in case 
you are adamant to try to shape client behaviour. In my view this is not 
in scope of a protocol and markup format specification.

Also minor point, I would recommend removing the "atone for your sins" 
sentence as it is overly informal for a spec.

I like the explicit requirements covering URL encoding, lang, and 
bullets. I wonder how authors will reliably signal the language to the 
server though, particularly as it may be on a page by page basis.

Otherwise keep up the good work!

Best wishes

  - Luke