I shouldn't do this because I'm deep in a project (using ASN.1, unfortunately)
which is running tight (of course). If I don't hold up my half of this
religious war, don't assume I've backed down -- only that I've gone back
to work.
------------------------------
Yup, anyone attempting to do ASN.1 without a compiler needs his head
examined.
I wanted to use yours, but you generated C++ objects. That's why I had to
write my own (took about a week -- time well spent).
However, even though the compiler makes use of ASN.1 tolerable to the
programmer, it doesn't make the idea of using ASN.1 any more rational.
------------------------------
This notion of its being an accepted international standard and therefore
somehow good is a matter of taste. There are those of us who observe what
comes out of ISO and see that that label on the "standard" should be reason
enough to avoid it. They've produced a long series of bogus "standards"
which some folks are silly enough to follow. (e.g., X.400, X.500, ASN.1,
...). [In case you didn't deduce it, I don't believe in design by
committee and especially not in design by command (ie., imposed standards).
I believe in the Internet way of doing business -- see what everyone is
using and bless it as a standard.]
------------------------------
We need something simple which moves C structures from one machine to
another -- not ASN.1 with its complexity.
We need to define the C structures directly -- not use the ASN syntax which
encourages people to write small, deeply nested definitions as one would
with BNF. BNF doesn't produce overhead when you nest definitions. ASN.1
does produce overhead in message size as well as CPU cycles for packing and
unpacking.
- Carl
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|Carl M. Ellison cme(_at_)tis(_dot_)com
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