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    SubjectRe: PROPOSAL: dot-proc interface [was: /proc stuff]
    On Mon, Nov 12, 2001 at 02:43:41PM +0100, Pascal Schmidt wrote:
    > On Sun, 11 Nov 2001, Jakob Østergaard wrote:
    >
    > > Now, my program needs to deal with the data, perform operations on it,
    > > so naturally I need to know what kind of data I'm dealing with. Most likely,
    > > my software will *expect* some certain type, but if I have no way of verifying
    > > that my assumption is correct, I will lose sooner or later...
    >
    > Why not read everything into a 1024-bit signed variable? Will work for
    > every numeric value in /proc. It's a bit of a hassle to code, but it is
    > possible. You only need to know the type if you want to write a numerical
    > value to a file in /proc, and even then the driver behind that /proc entry
    > should do sanity checks.

    So for 99.9% of all cases my program will do much much more work than is
    actually needed.

    I may still save the data in a database, or go over the network with it,
    so I should implement 1024 bit signed integers in all of that code too ?

    And what happens when we do crypto and 1024 bits is not enough ?

    I think the "use rediculously large datatypes" solution is a poor one,
    as it can never cover all cases in the future, and it will impose a large
    overhead on existing and new applications.

    --
    ................................................................
    : jakob@unthought.net : And I see the elder races, :
    :.........................: putrid forms of man :
    : Jakob Østergaard : See him rise and claim the earth, :
    : OZ9ABN : his downfall is at hand. :
    :.........................:............{Konkhra}...............:
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