Re: Proposed addition of strcodecs(3) library - review requested

[Alistair Crooks <agc%pkgsrc.org@localhost>]

On Sat, Sep 18, 2010 at 05:06:24PM +0200, Jean-Yves Migeon wrote:
> Would it be part of libnetpgp, or become an independant lib that can be
> used by other binaries, like cksum(1)?

Yes, I was looking at making it an independent lib, so cksum,
uu(en|de)code, atob/btoa, asa can use it, as well as gaining new
functionality like command line and lib access to all kinds of
hashing, cksum, character set encoding and decoding, network name
resolution and reverse resolution, etc.

I've just thought that I should add a function to do the work of
pwhash(1) too.
 
> Given that strcodecs(3) and libcrypto share some functionalities, isn't
> there a risk of (symbol) collisions?
> 
> (just wondering -- I am not aware of all the implementation details)

I hope not - all the exposed strcodecs functions have a prefix of
"strcodec". :-)

I think strcodecs(3) provides 3 things:

1.  a way of gathering together existing functionality, which is
seldom used, into one general command - asa(1) is a particular
favourite of mine in this regard - but also uuencode, uudecode, and
rot13 come to mind.  strcodecs(3) provides a way to do rot<N>, BTW

2.  as you note, a wrapper around a lot of libraries, providing a
consistent and simple interface, like the wrapper around gzip's
compress(3) functions, and the libc digest functions, and

3.  new and useful functionality like base64 and base85 encoding, and
character set conversion, soundex/metaphone, etc.

Best,
Alistair