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Date: Fri, 08 Apr 2005 18:02:44 -0400
From: Richard Coleman <rcoleman@criticalmagic.com>
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To: Poul-Henning Kamp <phk@phk.freebsd.dk>
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cc: Gleb Smirnoff <glebius@FreeBSD.org>
cc: Sam Leffler <sam@errno.com>
Subject: Re: cvs commit: src/sys/kern kern_mutex.c
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Poul-Henning Kamp wrote:
> In message <4256BF44.2000100@errno.com>, Sam Leffler writes:
> 
> 
>>>And besides, a formatted sysctl has no binary compatibility issues at
>>>all.  I like that too.
>>>
>>
>>Sure, that's the downside; you need to design binary protocols with care 
>>(this is a protocol after all).
> 
> 
> And given that X.400 is dead and SMTP lives I would say that an ascii
> based protocol is preferable.
> 

There are plenty of binary based protocols in common use.  Anything 
defined by ASN.1 is an example (ldap, Kerberos, etc).

But I generally agree that simple ASCII based protocols are preferable 
unless you are doing something complicated.

But I think the general idea was that any ad hoc protocol will generally 
suck, whether it is binary or ascii.

Richard Coleman
rcoleman@criticalmagic.com