In <b0c6f15b0911022239s3a22a2a2gf6404101562bb...@mail.gmail.com>, on
11/03/2009
at 12:39 AM, Chris Craddock <crashlu...@gmail.com> said:
>The PARM interface is older than dirt and even though we can all agree
>with hindsight that it was a momentously stupid design, it is
>nevertheless a formal, documented interface
No; it is documented that the C/I (originally the R/I) will never pass
more than 100 characters. It was also documented that there might be other
callers than the Initiator.
>Changing the behavior of PARM is fraught with incompatibilities. So much
>so that wiser heads elected not to pull the trigger on it.
Changing the behavior is exactly what you propose, and IBM has already
decided that they won't do that. The wiser heads at IBM decided that long
PARM support will continue to use a HW length followed by the characters,
with the main issue left open whether the limit[1] would be 32 KiB - 1 or
64 KiB - 1.
>There are lots of ways of enabling (much longer) parameter strings
>but they all necessarily involve defining some brand new and
>non- overlapping interface definition.
Not unless you need a PARM longer than 64 KiB - 1. Otherwise the existing
HW length will work just fine.
>THAT my friends is compatibility. Not elegant, not pretty, but
>guaranteed compatible.
Compatibility means one thing to you and something quite different to me.
>Now can we all just get over this nonsense?
Well, per Don Ault we already have; there will be no arbitrary new
interface when the existing interface can handle the job. Of course, we
disagree on what is nonesense.
[1] Yes, a FW would allow for a much higher limit, but per Don Ault
that's not going to happen, and I have never run into a situation
where 1 32 KiB - 1 limit would be inadequate.
--
Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz, SysProg and JOAT
ISO position; see <http://patriot.net/~shmuel/resume/brief.html>
We don't care. We don't have to care, we're Congress.
(S877: The Shut up and Eat Your spam act of 2003)
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