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Re: What I see as problems to solve ... and a strawman solution

2004-02-05 12:45:35

scm(_at_)imstumped(_dot_)com (Shawn C. Masters)  wrote on 02.02.04 in 
<20040202122154(_dot_)EAAD428067(_at_)fs(_dot_)imstumped(_dot_)com·3>:

      The problems you are describing with ASN.1 are really the problems
with how it is used inside X.400.  It is capable of doing anything XML can
do other then being easily human readable/writeable.  I wouldn't dismiss it.
The basic advantages are large when lots of processing is required (like on
a busy mail server).  Handling of binary data without encoding will reduce
the bandwidth and processing footprint.  Encoding numbers and date/times
prevents the requirement to reparse.

My point about ASN.1 was how easy it is to compatibly expand for  
originally-unforseen things. My experience with CSTA tells me ASN.1 isn't  
particularly good at doing that.

If all your data looks like oid/primitive data pairs, you can do an SNMP  
and be happy. But trying to retrofit something like MIME without getting  
rather seriously incompatible ... I don't see it.


MfG Kai