[ID3 Dev] Re: "numeric strings"

[Jud]

Mitch,

I'm with you on this.  There's a very vocal group of people that want to use 
19XX, etc in the TYER frame as well as text in TRCK.

On one hand it seems, in reality, harmless to allow it because it's a "text 
field", other software allows/supports it, and at worst software that doesn't 
support it ignores/converts it.

On the other hand there's the spec which says "numeric", we certainly wouldn't 
consider allowing non-numerical data in the TDAT frame, and TDOR/TDRC etc in 
2.4 (the replacement of TYER) has a well defined timestamp format.  But does 
199X-01-01 make sense?  To some it does.  For example, a live shows with a 
partially known date.  

But I think if the answer is 'this makes sense' the spec should reflect this.  
If it doesn't make sense, what's the preferred solution?  TDOR allows you the 
leave off the month if it's unknown, why not leave off the year if it's unknown 
(but the decade is known)?  Conforming to just "leaving off" the year part is 
unlikely but it certainly could be replaced with an X, which does reflect 
what's happening in reality.  Capital "XXX" is also used to designate an 
unknown Language in 2.4, so there's precedent here.

Many apps allow this behavior so you wouldn't be alone.  I apologize for not 
being much help, but hey, only the spec authors can answer for sure. :)

Off-topic: Has an ID3.org forum been discussed?  I think it would be easier to 
follow topics, it seems a few good topics go unreplied.

Jud



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