::scr Ramblings of a Classic Refugee or How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love OS X

[Alaric Snell]

On Wednesday 06 February 2002 15:20, you wrote:

> > You just need to learn a new syntax for every file instead :-)
>
> Files seem to cluster around a small number of syntaxes.

Likewise with binary formats; you have standards like XDR and the ASN.1 
encoding rules, and you have hand-designed ones like TCP/IP headers.

> > Explain why people *aren't* using text for everything. Where is the big
> > push to use textual encoding for images?
>
> This is so obvious as to not be worth explaining.  My beef is with people
> trying to use something other than text when text is sufficient for the
> job.

Ahah! That's more like it.

> >          The same with filesystems. I can't think of *any* filesystem
> > that uses an ASCII format for its control data. Filesystems are the most
> > crucial data formats we have... likewise with various forms of database.
> >
> > I suppose you wouldn't use filesystems or SQL engines on your servers,
> > then, because if they go wrong you would have to install a *special tool*
> > or *download documentation and go at it with a hex editor*, right?
>
> No, I try to avoid relational databases because they're slow and expensive.

Which ones have you used? PostgreSQL and MySQL and fast and cheap :-)

> >                                                                 Rather
> > than just trusting the fecking thing to work and fix itself
>
> I most assuredly do *not* trust them to work and fix themselves.

What do you trust your data to instead, then?

> > Being able to edit something in a text editor is *not* all that useful.
> > We've got by fine for years without requiring it. As time passes and more
> > layers of abstraction get built up the need for it should be *lessening*.
>
> Perhaps we are talking about different things.  I am talking about the
> unnecessary use of complex formats.  I'm not at all sure what you're
> talking about any more.

I'm talking about the unnecessary use of complex formats, too... and anything 
that requires an LL(1) grammar for describing a simple piece of information 
is way too complex :-)

ABS

-- 
                               Alaric B. Snell
 http://www.alaric-snell.com/  http://RFC.net/  http://www.warhead.org.uk/
   Any sufficiently advanced technology can be emulated in software