General Description

This specification is intended for use by implementers, academics, and application programmers. As such, it contains a considerable amount of explanatory material that, strictly speaking, is not necessary in a formal specification.

This specification is divided into the following subdivisions:

  1. Front matter (clauses 1–7);

  2. Overview and introductory material (clause 8);

  3. Main body (clauses 9–13);

  4. Annexes

Examples are provided to illustrate possible forms of the constructions described. References are used to refer to related clauses. Notes are provided to give advice or guidance to implementers or programmers.

The following clauses form the normative pieces of this specification:

  • Clauses 1–4, 6, and 8–11

The following clauses form the informative pieces of this specification:

  • Introduction

  • Clause 5, 7, and 12

  • All annexes

  • All notes and examples

Whole clauses that are informative are identified as such. Informative text that is contained within normative text is identified as either an example or note, as specified in §4.