Date: Mon, 8 Jul 2013 10:57:17 -0700 From: Jordan Hubbard <jkh@mail.turbofuzz.com> To: Pawel Jakub Dawidek <pjd@freebsd.org> Cc: arch@FreeBSD.org Subject: Re: General purpose library for name/value pairs. Message-ID: <717D098F-D07E-45B0-B9F0-8D8BCEF06923@mail.turbofuzz.com> In-Reply-To: <20130708150308.GE1383@garage.freebsd.pl> References: <20130704215329.GG1402@garage.freebsd.pl> <4818.1373008073@critter.freebsd.dk> <20130705195255.GB25842@garage.freebsd.pl> <60317.1373055040@critter.freebsd.dk> <20130708150308.GE1383@garage.freebsd.pl>
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On Jul 8, 2013, at 8:03 AM, Pawel Jakub Dawidek <pjd@freebsd.org> wrote: > How about instead of supporting int8, uint8, int16, uint16, int32, > uint32, int64 and uint64 I'd just support 'number' type, which would = be > uint64_t. This shouldn't break transporting signed values and because = I > don't support basic types like int, long, etc. casting or conversion = has > to be done anyway. This would reduce number of supported types to: That's a good idea. Since you're re-inventing Apple's XML property list = API (but without serialization and quite a few other things), keeping = the number of supported types down is much better than the converse - = exposing the details of 16/32/64 bit numbers and their signedness will = hang you over the long term, and you can always provide explicit = conversion functions to/from Number for those who actually care. String, Number, Boolean, Data, Date, Array and Dictionary are all plists = support, and Apple developers have gotten along pretty well for many = years with that set (not supporting Dictionaries, btw, is a pretty = fundamental loss IMHO - it means you have to always iterate through = lists to find your stuff, which is meh!). When Apple extended the Plist metaphor for IPC (to create XPC), they = also added out-of-band types like file and shared memory descriptors. = You have file descriptors, but not shared memory. The latter is kind of = important if you want to do larger IPCs with this mechanism someday and = want to support "big payloads" transparently without passing the burden = of the data management to the application programmer. Before you also come back with "but but this is a kernel API! For just = one purpose!" let me just say that it's absolutely achievable to have = ONE API for talking userland<->kernel and userland<->userland with the = same types and the transport mechanism(s) largely abstracted away. You = don't need two - it's already been done with one, just look next door. = :) If you add file serialization of this format to your picture (and add = the dictionary type) , bingo, now you have a preferences API that = FreeBSD has lacked from day one ("just roll your own format and stick = the file in /etc" being the canonical response to that need). - Jordan
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