On Wed, Mar 10, 1999 at 03:54:03PM +0100, Frank van der Linden wrote:
> 
> I always thought it was kind of backwards to first have the kernel
> convert data to ASCII, and then later convert it back. It's nice
> to have things available in ASCII for commandline use and scripts,
> but I'd like to see it binary as well.

  The problem with binary format is, if the kernel changes, bang!
ps/top/systat/xosview are useless until you can upgrade userland.
I've already coded up changes to ps that allow it to fall back on
/proc when kvm isn't happy (if /proc is mounted, that is), so
it works great in practice.  :)

  Binary format can also be provided, for performance reasons, if
desired.  It just isn't as flexible, and won't be my main focus
at first.

  Brian