First fields for sections in tag:value format, again

[tbetker]

Spec 2.3, Clause 7 has dropped the introduction from Spec. 2.2, chapter 3. In particular, it is missing the information that the first field of a new Package section in tag:value format must be the PackageName field ("A new Package Information section is denoted by the Package Name field.", and "A new Package Information section (via Package Name) denotes the start of another package.".

Unfortunately, this piece of information is vital when parsing the tag:value format; given a sequence of packages, you need to know when a new package starts (and the previous one ends).

The same applies to:

• Spec 2.3, Clause 8, and Spec 2.2, chapter 4 intro: "The first field to start off the description of a File must be the File Name in tag:value format.", and "File information is associated with the File Name that precedes it."
• Spec 2.3, Clause 9, and Spec 2.2, chapter 5 intro: "The first field to start off the description of a Snippet must be the Snippet Identifier in tag:value format."

(There is more information from these introductions missing, of course, but I am only concerned with this issue here.)

Please also note #348; Spec 2.3 not only failed to fix the older issue (by specifying that LicenseID must be the first field of a License section), but also managed to make things much, much worse ...

Again, I am suggesting to add appropriate language to Clauses 7 to 13 to the effect that

• a Package section starts with PackageName,
• a File section starts with FileName,
• a Snippet section starts with SnippetSPDXID,
• a License section starts with LicenseID,
• a Relationship section starts with Relationship,
• an Annotation section starts with Annotator,
• a Review section starts with Reviewer.

[goneall]

@tbetker I tend to agree - do you know which pull request / change created this issue? I wonder if we moved this to a different section or just dropped it. If it was dropped, I would agree it should be added back. IMO, the dropped text still applied (and is necessary).

[tbetker]

My fault... The contents of the introductions was actually moved to the composition chapter (now Clause 5) in May 2020. (It's a bit hard to tell from the history since removing text from the original chapters and adding it to the composition chapter were done by separate commits; also, the commit comments don't provide any reasons.)

So it's actually all there, just not were I expected it. Please accept my apologies.