Re: fs-independent quotas

[Manuel Bouyer <bouyer%antioche.eu.org@localhost>]

On Wed, Nov 16, 2011 at 11:52:58PM -0500, James K. Lowden wrote:
> On Tue, 15 Nov 2011 19:56:09 +0100
> Manuel Bouyer <bouyer%antioche.eu.org@localhost> wrote:
> 
> > The actual quotactl interface has a version number embeeded, for this
> > reason. But, for example, some fields can be added to the strucure
> > without changing the version number. The consumer will just notice if
> > the new field is present or not and real with it; this provides
> > backward and forward compat (older consumers will just ignore the new
> > fields). This is somethig you can't do with a binary format.
> 
> You don't really want to hang your hat on that argument, do you?  Or
> are you using some form of text not represented by zeros and ones?
>  Surely you can imagine a binary protocol in which some parts are
> optional and that can be extended in ways that older clients can
> ignore.  I know you can, because text *is* binary.  
> 
> Since the difference between "text" and "binary" is cultural
> convention, neither one is inherently more or less capable as far as
> the computer is concerned.   

In this context, "text format" means a key/value pair format, in which
some keys are optionnal and values can be of arbitrary types. Maybe you can
do this with a binary format too, but it doesn't exists yet.

-- 
Manuel Bouyer <bouyer%antioche.eu.org@localhost>
     NetBSD: 26 ans d'experience feront toujours la difference
--