New DB and line continuation?

On Mon, 23 Apr 2001, DB-News wrote:

>> The new version of the RIPE Database is now up and running! 
>> All objects have been automatically converted to RPSL and loaded into 
>> the new version of the Database.

Congratulations! However, I have a question:

When an attribute needs multiple lines to be described, the standard
RPSL format requires the attribute name to be mentioned once, while
successive lines are separted by spaces or commas (like you defined
in the transition document as well). It used to be like that in the
previous version of rpsl.ripe.net. However, right now, it seems to
me there is a strange RIPE-181/RPSL mix in place. See example:

* RADB and old REIMP.RIPE (standard RPSL):

[beri at nix00 ~]$ rwhois -h whois.ra.net as-kq
as-set:        AS-KQ
descr:         KPNQwest European routes
               Formerly AS-EUNET AND NOT AS-EUNETQWEST
members:       AS286, AS719, AS1136, AS1137, AS1213,
               AS1234, AS1889, AS1891, AS1902, AS2043,
               AS2049, AS2110, AS2135, AS2857, AS3220,
...

* RIPE (new format, RPSL):

as-set:       AS-KQ
descr:        KPNQwest European routes
descr:        Formerly AS-EUNET AND NOT AS-EUNETQWEST
members:      AS286, AS719, AS1136, AS1137, AS1213, AS1234, AS1889
members:      AS1891, AS1902, AS2043, AS2049, AS2110, AS2135, AS2857
members:      AS3220, AS3246, AS3262, AS3265, AS3286, AS3324, AS3333
members:      AS3347, AS3615, AS5385, AS5399, AS5403, AS5407, AS5419

While some of you might think this is not important, this is VERY
important to some of us who make scripts for automating our tasks with
the RIPE DB.

Can anyone explain the reason of this RPSL syntax violation? Thanks!

Regards,
Beri

---------    Berislav Todorovic, Network Engineer    ---------
-------   KPNQwest N.V. - IP NOC (formerly EUnet NOC)  -------
----  Wilhelmina van Pruisenweg 78, 2595 AN Den Haag, NL  ----
---    Phone: +31-70-379-3990; Mobile: +31-651-333-641     ---
--         Email: beri at kpnqwest.net <=> beri at EU.net         --
---      _   _  ____      _  .--.        ____  ____ __/_   ---
-----    /__/  /___/ /\  /  /   / |   / /___/ /___   /  ------
------ _/  \_ /    _/  \/  (__.\  |/\/ /___  ____/  (__. -----