The following basic questions are nagging at my brain....
Q1: XML is a universal standard data format that is gaining
popularity fast. What is the role of
ASN.1 in a world with XML?? Is it a competing standard??
Does it add any /more/ value?
Q2: I read about ASN.1 specifying a binary format for data.
I think this may be the (only?) extra contribution ASN.1 has
that XML does not have. If so, why does ASN.1 also
specify an ASCII format??? Perhaps it would have been
more useful to /just/ make ASN.1 specify a standard
way to encode XML in binary?
Q3: Why do we /need/ a standard binary format?? The Transport Layer
of the TCP/IP network stack has been happily moving tons of
bits thru the Internet via sockets and port for years without
any need for a "standard way to represent ones and zeroes"!!!
Granted it is true that there is no standardization of *how*
or *what* gets sent thru the Transport Layer. In the Application
Layer, applications make up their own standard.... FTP, SSH,
TELNET, HTTP each define their own protocol. I suppose we could
start making applications all use ASN.1 instead of reinventing
the wheel.... but why would that be useful?
Q4: Many papers on ASN.1 define it's functionality in terms
of two upper layers of the *OSI* network model. Why is this
useful since the whole world uses the TCP/IP network model
instead?
Thanks in advance.
Chris Seberino
