[ID3 Dev] "numeric strings"

[Mitchell S. Honnert]

I have a broader question, but basically it all boils down to this...

Is "19XX" a valid value for the Information field in the TYER (Recording 
Year) frame?

Based on my reading of the ID3v2.3.0 spec, I don't believe it is.

Here's the TYER spec...

"The 'Year' frame is a numeric string with a year of the recording. This 
frames is always four characters long (until the year 10000)."

And this is from Section 2, "Conventions in the document"...

"A numeric string is a string that consists of the characters 0-9 only."

Regardless of the potential benefit for storing approximate years, it seems 
rather straightforward that the spec would not allow the "19XX" value. 
However, it seems not uncommon for apps and libs to allow it.

So, does "numeric string" really mean "0-9" only or should we discuss the 
frames with exceptions to the rule and document the results?

Thanks,

Mitchell S. Honnert
www.UltraID3Lib.com

PS: Is there anyone that's been involved with the spec long enough to 
remember the reasoning for a storing number as a "numeric string" in the 
Text Information Frames?  Outside of this discussion list, I do my share of 
defending the standard, but just between us, it seems that with all of the 
rather esoteric frame types defined in the standard, it would have made much 
more sense to have a "Numeric Information Frames" section that defined 
frames which stored numbers in a binary fashion.  Then, the whole question 
of whether "19XX" was valid would have been moot. 


---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: id3v2-unsubscribe at id3.org
For additional commands, e-mail: id3v2-help at id3.org