[aprssig] spaces in object names

[Pete Loveall AE5PL Lists]

Steve, time to put your dependence on Wikipedia to bed.  Go to http://nemesis.lonestar.org/reference/telecom/codes/ascii.html and -read- the ANSI definition of the ASCII character set which has been in place since 1968.  There is no ambiguity.  The space character is part of the "Basic Printable" character set; specifically it is considered to be a part of the "Symbols and Punctuation" subset.  Since the APRS spec says "An Object Report has a fixed 9-character Object name, which may consist of any printable ASCII characters.", the space character is included in that statement.  Period.  The objects that are generated for the D-STAR repeaters are not invalid in any sense of the word.

BTW, the APRS spec also says "Object names are case-sensitive." but a number of authors ignored that too.  It doesn't make it wrong, just that some people read the spec a little closer than others.

As to trimming trailing spaces for readability, I fully understand and tend to agree with you and Bob that, for display purposes, trimming trailing spaces is worthwhile.  However, if we are to hold to the spec, we really shouldn't do that either.  I think most authors do trim trailing spaces from Object names and Item names.  Because of this last statement, I tend to say that it is the -de facto standard- to disregard -trailing- spaces in an Item or Object name.

73,

Pete Loveall AE5PL
pete at ae5pl dot net