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Proposal: Bolding NOT required for "shall"/"shall not"

From
David A. Wheeler <>
Date
2008-06-11T15:37:26+00:00
ID
Thread
Proposal: Bolding NOT required for "shall"/"shall not"
Section 1.2 says that "shall", "shall not", etc. are only interpreted per ISO/IEC
if they appear in bold letters.

That's just ASKING for trouble:
* If someone cuts and pastes and loses the bolding,
  they should still be able to correctly interpret the text.
* If we make a mistake and omit a bolding, did we REALLY
   mean for it "not to count"?  Unlikely.  In fact, the first "shall"
   after that is NOT in bold (oops).
* It may impair accessibility of the document; blind users
  may not notice the bolding.
I have no trouble bolding the text, but that should be a visual aid, and NOT required.

We should also note "need not" (it's the reverse of "may").

--- David A. Wheeler
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