-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 > Yes, a gateway shouldn't have to know about fields, nothing I'm saying > contradicts that. And of course nothing I'm saying remotely resembles > the suggestion that I know all possible applications of Freenet--that > one you made up on your own. > > I'm not even saying that typed and/or binary protocols are bad. I was > on the teams that created GIF, JFIF, and PNG image formats; those are > very binary and work well, because their content models closely mirror > the physical properties of images (well, GIF is actually deficient in > that respect, but I was outvoted :) > > What I am arguing for is that since Freenet cannot know the intent > of any communication, it's content model should be as flexible as > possible, precisely because neither you, nor I, nor anyone else can > predict what it will be used for. Like it or not, named text fields > are a flexible and powerful content model. More powerful and more > flexible in some ways than typed text fields. > > Basically, it comes down to this: HTTP works, works well, and has > nearly taken over the world. I've used applications that tunnel > anything and everything through HTTP--I'm writing one at work right > now. The idea that the same content model (binary chunk with named > text fields) is inadequate has to overcome that evidence.
But in order to write an app that just passes on fields in a different protocol, possibly with different data representations, it *has* to know the type of the field. You're suggesting that even trivial protocol conversion apps must know all about the freenet protocol. Thats insane! If you give type hints in the fields, the app can pass fields on according to certain rules, and can be far far simpler. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.0.1 (GNU/Linux) Comment: For info see http://www.gnupg.org iD8DBQE5HE1gpXyM95IyRhURAurTAJ0Y2INQvwNivTZ5U+JZA0ZyPa2fRQCePbGW jnJUE4ZsKSC+NHs1/67AhnE= =65L8 -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- _______________________________________________ Freenet-dev mailing list Freenet-dev at lists.sourceforge.net http://lists.sourceforge.net/mailman/listinfo/freenet-dev
