Re: draft-ietf-syslog-device-mib-00.txt - Enums starting at zero

["C. M. Heard" <heard@pobox.com>]

On Mon, 26 Aug 2002, Joan Cucchiara wrote:
> My question is about what the current practice is
> for starting enums at zero when there is a reason 
> for starting at zero.

Values of enums in SMIv2 are not restricted like they
were in SMIv1 -- they can have any integer value.
There is no longer any reason to require them to 
start at 1.

> Specifically in this MIB, there is an enum:
> 
> SyslogSeverity  ::=  TEXTUAL-CONVENTION
>     STATUS  current
>     DESCRIPTION
>         "This textual convention maps out to the severity levels
>          of syslog messages.  The syslog protocol uses the values
>          0 (emergency), to 7 (debug)."
>     SYNTAX  INTEGER {
>                       emergency(1),
>                       alert(2),
>                       critical(3),
>                       error(4),
>                       warning(5),
>                       notice(6),
>                       info(7),
>                       debug(8)
>                     }

Re-numbering the enums from 0 to 7 to match RFC 3164 would make
more sense than what is done above.

> At one point having enums start at zero in SMIv2 was 
> not encouraged due to backwards compatibility with SMIv1,
> but am wondering if this is still the case? 

No, not any more.  We keep SMIv1 around because we don't
want to have to re-write perfectly good SMIv1 MIBs, but
essentially all new work these days is done in SMIv2,
both within and outside the IETF.

//cmh