Reconsider max length requirement on summary

[arhag]

I think a hard requirement on the maximum length of the summary is too restrictive. It may be fine if the summary was not allowed to have Handlebar expressions, but included the expressions makes it difficult for Ricardian authors to satisfy the requirement.

First the spec is ambiguous regarding whether the 116 character length limit applies to the raw string, the generated string, or both.

The raw string containing the Handlebar expressions can often be longer than the generated string (especially if using helpers like nowrap which seems appropriate for the summary).

Also, if the length requirement is on the generated string, it can often be impossible to fully conform to the requirement because the Ricardian author does not control the length of the substituted strings which are determined by a user's input in the action payload.

My recommendation is to change the spec to make this character limit more of a guideline than a hard requirement. Tools compliant to this spec should not reject rendering a Ricardian if the length of the raw summary or the generated one is greater than 116 characters. However, Ricardian renderers would be free to not display the parts of the summary beyond the 116th character, and so Ricardian authors would be highly recommended to avoid length summaries that could result in the generated string being too long.