From owner-freebsd-current Sun Jan 24 16:45:31 1999 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id QAA16821 for freebsd-current-outgoing; Sun, 24 Jan 1999 16:45:31 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from dingo.cdrom.com (castles154.castles.com [208.214.165.154]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id QAA16813 for ; Sun, 24 Jan 1999 16:45:29 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from mike@dingo.cdrom.com) Received: from dingo.cdrom.com (LOCALHOST [127.0.0.1]) by dingo.cdrom.com (8.9.1/8.8.8) with ESMTP id QAA06023; Sun, 24 Jan 1999 16:41:17 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from mike@dingo.cdrom.com) Message-Id: <199901250041.QAA06023@dingo.cdrom.com> X-Mailer: exmh version 2.0.2 2/24/98 To: Garrett Wollman cc: Mike Smith , current@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: sysctl oids (was: Re: kvm question) In-reply-to: Your message of "Sun, 24 Jan 1999 17:01:11 EST." <199901242201.RAA17112@khavrinen.lcs.mit.edu> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Date: Sun, 24 Jan 1999 16:41:17 -0800 From: Mike Smith Sender: owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG > < said: > > > Backwards compatibility is one thing, but new nodes should be named, > > not numbered. OID_AUTO is bogus because it perpetuates the numbering > > of nodes. > > Nonsense. There are plenty of contexts in which a number makes far > more sense than a name -- pretty much anything in any network stack > other than Chaosnet, for example. If any of us ever make good on the > threat of SNMP integration, having fixed numerical identifiers will be > a requirement. A number can be a name, but a name not a number. It's obvious that enumerated objects need numeric identifiers, but not desirable to mandate the existence of numbers to match all names. Unless you want the IANA to step in of course. -- \\ Sometimes you're ahead, \\ Mike Smith \\ sometimes you're behind. \\ mike@smith.net.au \\ The race is long, and in the \\ msmith@freebsd.org \\ end it's only with yourself. \\ msmith@cdrom.com To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-current" in the body of the message