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Foreword

  1. This document is considered an "open standard", meaning that...

    In addition, this standard shall be primarily formatted as an HTML document. HTML is compact, efficient to maintain, and can be navigated quickly. HTML is also accessible as web browsers an other HTML document renderers are ubiquitous across many digital devices. Additionally, HTML does not rely on the support of one single party which promotes a longer maintenance lifetime for this document.

Authoring

  1. The "ASC Working Group" is the designated body that shall maintain this Standard and its documentation.

  2. Any entity who's work is incorporated into this standard shall be eligible for inclusion in the working group.

  3. The ASC Working Group shall always include a "central maintainer" who is responsible for the final approval or disapproval of any modification to the standard by the working group.

  4. The central maintainer position shall be passed to another individual at the current central maintainer's discretion. If the current central maintainer is not available to appoint a successor, the new central maintainer shall be chosen by majority vote from the ASC Working Group members.

Proposing Changes

  1. Changes to this standard may be proposed from outside the working group. These changes should be communicated in a well-documented proposal.

  2. A proposal must...

Document Organization

  1. This document is divided into a hierarchy of labelled sections that contain numbered clauses.

  2. Each section may have any number of labelled subsections.

  3. Sections will not be numbered, only clauses.

  4. Clauses shall contain a few sentences regarding a single topic or idea.

Versioning

  1. There shall only ever be one approved version of this Standard at a time. Previous versions of this standard are not considered valid.

  2. Versions of this document are called Revisions.

  3. The version number shall be represented by a pair of two-digit numbers separated by a decimal dot. The numbers begin at zero and are increased with every modification to the document.

  4. The first number is increased with large modifications. The second number is increased with small modifications.

  5. With each iteration of the first number, the second number is reset to "00".

  6. The addition or deletion of an entire section or secondary sub-section is considered a large modification. A large modification also occurs when the second version number has reached "99" and another small modification occurs.

  7. The addition or deletion of a tertiary or lower sub-section is considered a small modification. The modifiation of the contents of a section is also considered a small modification.

  8. New versions shall be released when a substantial amount of modifications have occurred. The amount of modification considered substantial is left to the author(s) discretion.

Notation Conventions

  1. Examples are provided to show a selection of possible forms a construct can take in actual use. Examples will be given in a monospaced font.

  2. References are used in this document to refer to material in other sections. References are given by the section title and clause number in italics in parentheses (Notation Conventions, 2).

  3. Terms defined within this document will be cited using a numbered, hypertext link0. All appearances of terms are not required to be cited, but the first appearance of a term should be cited.

  4. Recommendations are provided to suggest helpful approaches for implementors. Recommendations are not requirements. Recommendations are written with a slightly smaller, and lighter colored font.

  5. Without sacrificing clarity, preference should always be given to plain language, rather than technical language, when describing ideas in this Standard.

Grammar Notation

  1. Syntax is described using terminal and non-terminal entities in a modified Backus-Naur form.

  2. The names of non-terminal entities are written in bold font, followed by an arrow(→).

  3. Each non-terminal is followed by a series of other terminal or non-terminal entities separated by vertical bars.

  4. The names of terminal entities are written in italicized font followed by an arrow (⇒).

  5. Each terminal entity is followed by a single POSIX Extended Regular Syntax expression.

  6. An entity that is neither bold nor italicized refers to the top non-terminal entity from an external syntax diagram.

  7. A terminal entity may optionally be written in-place using a monospaced font.

  8. An entity that is optional shall be underlined.