interesting person entry...

 Dear David,

 you wrote as reply to my mail:
> From: davidk at isi.edu
> Message-Id: <9609261851.AA00711 at old.isi.edu>
> Subject: Re: interesting person entry...
> To: noc at noc.dfn.de
> Date: Thu, 26 Sep 1996 11:51:51 -0700 (PDT)
> Cc: db-wg at ripe.net (Database Working Group)
[...]
> >  by accident I discovered a person entry which in its form is definitely
> >  not wanted:
> > 
> > *pn: Stefan Seiz
> > *ad: Herdweg 73
> > *ad:                               \
> >   ...                               > 128 empty address lines!!!
> > *ad:                               /
> > *ad: 70174 Stuttgart
> > *ad: Germany
[...]
> >  I am in no position to decide whether the entry was done including these
> >  empty lines or whether this is an error of the database software.
> 
> I am in such a position and found indeed a bug (It was the power of two
> that made me feel that there was a bigger problem then at first sight).
> 
> I could quickly trace the problem *and* have fixed the code.

 Great! Thank you very much for this fast debugging! (and that it was done
 remotely from ISI ;-)
[...]
> The database working group might want to decide to completely disallow
> empty attribute lines inside a (non empty) attribute.
> 
> I personally feel that this should be done through the config file: give
> every attribute a property of allowed empty lines or not. For example
> 'remarks:' lines can be read easier when they may contain empty lines
> while empty rev-srv: lines are useless.
> 
 Wilfried: I suggest a collection of all attributes should be analyzed
 to see where empty lines are useful and where not. I currently do not
 have an overview of all attributes but I feel that
 - single ones
 - attributes used as reference (e.g. tech-c)
 - attributes necessary for administrative database purposes (e.g. changed
   or source)
 must not be empty (just as it came to my mind). I wonder how many
 attributes might be left over which could carry empty lines. I feel that
 the address attribute should not have empty lines. However, empty lines
 could be useful as David noted on the remark attribute.
 I guess this might be a point for the agenda of RIPE26...

 Thank you, David for this fast repsonse!
 Regards
    Joachim
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