Subject: [Cbor] Terminology for parts of CBOR items

From: Jeffrey Yasskin <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 11 Aug 2017 15:21:07 -0700

I'd like CBOR-bis to, if possible, provide some clearer terminology
for the pieces of a CBOR item, mostly so that implementations of CBOR
can use the terms and so be easier to read.

Take a 32-byte byte string. We have:

* Type 2
* Additional information 24
* Length 32
* Some data.

The Type+Additional Info is the "initial byte" per
https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc7049#section-2. Are we happy with this
term? I don't see a term for the Type+Additional Info+Length. [1]

For the negative integer -32, we have:

* Type 1
* Additional Information 24
* Value 31

I don't see a term that includes both the byte string's length and the
integer's value. [2]

I don't have strong opinions about what these terms should be, but in
the spirit of not complaining without offering a path forward, I'll
propose:

[1] "Item header"? For integers and simple items, the item header
would be the same as the item.
[2] "Argument"? This isn't very good, but I don't have a better idea.

Jeffrey