[ntar-workers] Generic Comments on NTAR format

[Michael Richardson]

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    >> Hi, Some generic comments on the NTAR format: - The first thing
    >> I'd change is the use of 0, 1, 2, etc. for all the codes,
    >> including block type codes (Figure 1), SHB Option codes,
    >> Interface Option codes, etc. Instead, I'd use a 32-bit number
    >> corresponding to 4 ascii characters that remind of the
    >> block/option meaning. For example, we could use the following
    >> block type codes: 0x53484220 (or "SHB ") for Section Header

  Yes, ILBM did this and it was great.
  It makes it clear that there is a "registry", so using the value
of: ntar.h's _MAX+1 value isn't something that people do.
  
    Loris> This is a good idea, but:

    Loris> - some blocks, like the SHB, cannot have arbitrary codes:
    Loris> they need magic numbers to handle big endian vs little endian
    Loris> issues (we discussed quite a lot about this last year on

  There are two choices:
	a) "SHB " and "B SH".
	b) could set bit 7 on all bytes for big endian.

- -- 
] Michael Richardson          Xelerance Corporation, Ottawa, ON |  firewalls  [
] mcr @ xelerance.com           Now doing IPsec training, see   |net architect[
] http://www.sandelman.ca/mcr/    www.xelerance.com/training/   |device driver[
]                    I'm a dad: http://www.sandelman.ca/lrmr/                 [
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