Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

I think its unambiguous. If they want "and/or" to just mean inclusive or why not just use "or". Its shorter, simpler, easier to understand. I also feel "and/or" in general usually means either option are possible/acceptable.

The point I was making is that "DMARC passes if DKIM _and_ SPF passes" and "DMARC passes if DKIM _or_ SPF passes" are both true - you can't specify "DMARC passes if, and only if, DKIM _and_ SPF passes"



> If they want "and/or" to just mean inclusive or why not just use "or". Its shorter, simpler, easier to understand.

The english language being ambigious or not making sense is not a new issue. All i know, is i almost always see "and/or" used to mean inclusive or.

Also the dictionary seems to agree it means inclusive or: https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/and/or


I agree the statement "DMARC passes if SPF (inclusive or) DKIM passes"

I was only trying to point out that "and/or" is ambiguous (which we agree, and Wikipedia even agrees - 2 paragraphs for a defintion, 5 paragraphs of criticism) and one of those ambiguities is thinking it means logical AND - which is something DMARC does not do.

Using just "or" would have been fine and conveyed the same meaning as it does now.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: