[ih] Dotted decimal notation

[Steffen Nurpmeso]

Brian E Carpenter wrote in
 <50b09f72-bf07-28f5-14ab-73f746b6de75 at gmail.com>:
 |Can anyone recall when and by whom the dotted decimal notation for IPv4
 |addresses was invented? This text first appeared in RFC820 (January 1983):
 |
 |   One commonly used notation for internet host addresses divides the
 |   32-bit address into four 8-bit fields and specifies the value of each
 |   field as a decimal number with the fields separated by periods.  This
 |   is called the "dotted decimal" notation.  For example, the internet
 |   address of ISIF in dotted decimal is 010.002.000.052, or 10.2.0.52.
 |
 |The leading zeroes are not considered valid these days.

For at least IPv6, and on the other hand, the [Emailcore] working
group seems to continue to allow leading zeroes even though one of
the many RFCs emposes very strict formatting (including forcing
all-lowercase).  I personally have never seen IPv4 with leading
zeroes however (except in dialogs with 4*3 and all always filled).
I really liked RFC 1884 on IPv6 which allowed uppercase and
lowercase, compression and non-compression, etc. etc.  Isn't it
over-engineering to enforce strict syntax rules about two decades
after a relatively liberal and tolerant syntax was established.
Where is necessary freedom here, "leading zeroes are not
considered valid", if this were the only problem.

--steffen
|
|Der Kragenbaer,                The moon bear,
|der holt sich munter           he cheerfully and one by one
|einen nach dem anderen runter  wa.ks himself off
|(By Robert Gernhardt)