On Monday, 19 February 2018 at 01:26:43 UTC, Jonathan M Davis
wrote:
Okay. Maybe, I'm dumb, but what is the point of all of this?
Why would any kind of standard be necessary at all?
Good question. Having a standard allows computers to interface
with the archive as well as humans.
It's not hard to create "ad hoc" formats on the fly to represent
multiple files, which is why having a standard doesn't
immediately come to mind. But with a standard, you can create
tools to process that format and understand it.
As an example, we're exploring 2 useful applications, namely,
representing multi-file tests in the dmd test suite and
multi-file programs in https://run.dlang.io, it's also already
been useful to me in copy/pasting complex test cases to forums
without having to manage a bunch of individual files. Of course,
these are just a few examples of the benefits you get with a
standard.
So...is it necessary? No. Is it helpful? I think so. Is it
worth it? I think there's a good case for it when you weight the
simplicity of it against the benefit.
