[OASIS Issue Tracker] Commented: (ODATA-381) Hanging paragraphs - all current csprd01 documents

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    [ http://tools.oasis-open.org/issues/browse/ODATA-381?page=com.atlassian.jira.plugin.system.issuetabpanels:comment-tabpanel&focusedCommentId=33386#action_33386 ] 

Patrick Durusau commented on ODATA-381:
---------------------------------------

Stefan,

Well, that's refreshing! I have never heard anyone argue in favor of hanging paragraphs before. ;-)

I think the ambiguity of reference issue could be solved on a case by case basis but then we have a mix of some hanging paragraphs and some not (as we do now) and the reader is left to guess if that means we took a different view of the references for those differing practices. 

Since it is unlikely that we will say in the text, "any reference to section N means all of section N and not any subpart," or "any reference to section N excludes any numbered subdivision," it seems easier to me to simply correct the hanging paragraph issue. 

Rather than having N followed by prose we would have 

N - Title

N.1 General followed by prose

I don't think that has a severe impact on readability. Most users will not notice the change. But for us we have a uniform means to reference content throughout the standard. 

> Hanging paragraphs - all current csprd01 documents
> --------------------------------------------------
>
>                 Key: ODATA-381
>                 URL: http://tools.oasis-open.org/issues/browse/ODATA-381
>             Project: OASIS Open Data Protocol (OData) TC
>          Issue Type: Bug
>          Components: OData ATOM Format , OData CSDL, OData Extension for JSON Data 
>    Affects Versions: V4.0_CSD01
>            Reporter: Patrick Durusau
>            Priority: Minor
>
> The current drafts have what are known as "hanging paragraphs." 
> As an example, from odata-v4.0-csprd01-part1-protocol:
> ****
> 8 Header Fields
> OData defines semantics around the following request and response headers. Additional headers MAY be specified, but have no unique semantics defined in OData.
> 8.1 Common Headers
> The OData-Version and Content-Type headers are common between OData requests and responses.
> ****
> If I say, conform to Section 8, do I mean:
> All of section 8 or do I mean only the paragraph following section 8, but not any of the following subsections?
> This happens with sub-sections as well, see odata-v4.0-csprd01-part2-url-conventions:
> ****
> 5.1.1.5 Lambda Operators
> OData defines two operators that evaluate a Boolean expression on a collection. Both must be prepended with a navigation path that identifies a collection. 
> 5.1.1.5.1 any 
> The any operator applies a Boolean expression to each member of a collection and evaluates to true if and only if the expression is true for any member of the collection. As a special case the Boolean expression may be empty, in which case the any operator evaluates to true if the collection is not empty.  
> ****
> If I say conform to 5.1.1.5 Lambda Operators, as in "prepend[ing]" a navigation path that identifies a collection, do I also mean conform to all the subparagraphs that follow? Or do I mean just that part? 
> Formally it is an ambiguous reference to have content following a section division that has sub-divisions. It isn't possible to resolve from the text along, say for a conformance clause, the meaning of the reference. Meaning different readers will assign different meanings to the reference. 

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