Re: [Phpgroupware-developers] Should and Shall in standards

[Miles Lott]

Should I comment?  I think I shall.  Must you be so obtuse?
Maybe.

Mark A Peters wrote:
> 
> On Mon, 21 Jan 2002, Andrew M Cohill wrote:
> 
> > >     It uses the words "you should not inlcude GIF's in..." it does *not* 
> > > say
> > >     "you cannot" or "you shall not". It says "should not", which implies 
> > > an
> > >     option.
> > >
> > >It is a requirement, not an option.  This file always states
> > >requirements with "should not", never "cannot" or "shall not".  The
> > >file uses "cannot" only for factual statements about what is possible,
> > >and never uses "shall" at all.
> >
> >   I was a member of the ANSI Standards Committee HFES-200 (Software
> > Ergonomics) for more than 10 years.
> >
> > All ANSI standards  use "should" and "shall" in this way:
> >
> > Should-- strongly encouraged to do it, but it is not required.
> >
> > Shall--to be in compliance with the standard, you must do it.
> >
> > We also were part of the ISO 9241 Standards Committee, and the
> > Europeans also followed this practice.
> >
> 
> This was a very big issue I seen when looking back at the FSF/GNU's view
> of the GIF patent.  I know what the difference is by reading a "should
> not" / "can not" or a "shall not", and there is no ambiguities by what is
> meant.
> 
> Being a federal employee serving in the US military I see/write this style
> of wording everyday in software requirements/system specs.  We have to
> write our SRS in a very specific manner in an effort to explicitly
> identify what we want/need from potential government contractors or other
> federal agencies.
> 
> Thanks,
> Mark A Peters (Skeeter)
> 
> > Andrew
> > --
> > --------------------------------------------------
> > Andrew Michael Cohill, Ph.D.
> > Director, Blackburg Electronic Village
> > address@hidden    http://www.bev.net/
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Phpgroupware-developers mailing list
> > address@hidden
> > http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/phpgroupware-developers
> >
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Phpgroupware-developers mailing list
> address@hidden
> http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/phpgroupware-developers

-- 

Miles Lott - phpGroupWare
http://www.phpgroupware.org