[etothepii]

Don't forget the rules of British English that make it very clear that the grammatical construction: "you should consider" means "you must in all circumstances save for the immediate alternate outcome being a genocide."

[randomifcpfan]

Thanks for explaining! That’s quite different from the US English (and RFC English) meaning of “should”.

[etothepii]

This translation guide is usually helpful.

https://polish2english.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/55551980-...

I'm afraid I don't know what RFC English is and neither does Google.

[valley_guy_12]

Huh, for me the very first non-ad result for googleing RFC English is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Request_for_Comments, which is the correct citation.

[etothepii]

For me it was to do with Rugby Football.

[layer8]

To be fair, here is the RFC meaning:

   SHOULD   This word, or the adjective "RECOMMENDED", mean that there
   may exist valid reasons in particular circumstances to ignore a
   particular item, but the full implications must be understood and
   carefully weighed before choosing a different course.

It means you can’t simply ignore it, and instead have to have compelling reasons to justify any deviation.

[valley_guy_12]

Unfortunately, in many organizations, "the library we use doesn't follow this recommendation" is a valid compelling reason. Which means that in practice "SHOULD" effectively means "WOULD BE NICE IF".