I gather the reason for the 64-bit int type was to maintain some backwards-compatibility around the old sequential IDs, so both the old- style and Snowflake IDs could be sorted and you could glean that smaller IDs are older than larger integers. U/GUIDs wouldn't be sortable in any meaningful fashion.
- Jough On Nov 19, 10:42 pm, dean <dean.pou...@gmail.com> wrote: > Why not just use a GUID or UUID type for the ID type (IE: > 3F2504E0-4F89-11D3-9A0C-0305E82C3301)? This way you're not restricted > by using a numeric data type that each language could potentially > define differently. > > For languages that don't directly have a GUID or UUID type, they can > treat that ID as a string, and the higher level languages can use the > GUID data type directly. > > On Oct 18, 7:19 pm, Matt Harris <thematthar...@twitter.com> wrote: > > > Last week you may remember Twitter planned to enable the new Status ID > > generator - 'Snowflake' but didn't. The purpose of this email is to explain > > the reason why this didn't happen, what we are doing about it, and what the > > new release plan is. > > > So what is Snowflake? > > ------------------------------ > > Snowflake is a service we will be using to generate unique Tweet IDs. These > > Tweet IDs are unique 64bit unsigned integers, which, instead of being > > sequential like the current IDs, are based on time. The full ID is composed > > of a timestamp, a worker number, and a sequence number. > > > The problem > > ----------------- > > Before launch it came to our attention that some programming languages such > > as Javascript cannot support numbers with >53bits. This can be easily > > examined by running a command similar to: (90071992547409921).toString() in > > your browsers console or by running the following JSON snippet through your > > JSON parser. > > > {"id": 10765432100123456789, "id_str": "10765432100123456789"} > > > In affected JSON parsers the ID will not be converted successfully and will > > lose accuracy. In some parsers there may even be an exception. > > > The solution > > ---------------- > > To allow javascript and JSON parsers to read the IDs we need to include a > > string version of any ID when responding in the JSON format. What this means > > is Status, User, Direct Message and Saved Search IDs in the Twitter API will > > now be returned as an integer and a string in JSON responses. This will > > apply to the main Twitter API, the Streaming API and the Search API. > > > For example, a status object will now contain an id and an id_str. The > > following JSON representation of a status object shows the two versions of > > the ID fields for each data point. > > > [ > > { > > "coordinates": null, > > "truncated": false, > > "created_at": "Thu Oct 14 22:20:15 +0000 2010", > > "favorited": false, > > "entities": { > > "urls": [ > > ], > > "hashtags": [ > > ], > > "user_mentions": [ > > { > > "name": "Matt Harris", > > "id": 777925, > > "id_str": "777925", > > "indices": [ > > 0, > > 14 > > ], > > "screen_name": "themattharris" > > } > > ] > > }, > > "text": "@themattharris hey how are things?", > > "annotations": null, > > "contributors": [ > > { > > "id": 819797, > > "id_str": "819797", > > "screen_name": "episod" > > } > > ], > > "id": 12738165059, > > "id_str": "12738165059", > > "retweet_count": 0, > > "geo": null, > > "retweeted": false, > > "in_reply_to_user_id": 777925, > > "in_reply_to_user_id_str": "777925", > > "in_reply_to_screen_name": "themattharris", > > "user": { > > "id": 6253282 > > "id_str": "6253282" > > }, > > "source": "web", > > "place": null, > > "in_reply_to_status_id": 12738040524 > > "in_reply_to_status_id_str": "12738040524" > > } > > ] > > > What should you do - RIGHT NOW > > ---------------------------------------------- > > The first thing you should do is attempt to decode the JSON snippet above > > using your production code parser. Observe the output to confirm the ID has > > not lost accuracy. > > > What you do next depends on what happens: > > > * If your code converts the ID successfully without losing accuracy you are > > OK but should consider converting to the _str versions of IDs as soon as > > possible. > > * If your code has lost accuracy, convert your code to using the _str > > version immediately. If you do not do this your code will be unable to > > interact with the Twitter API reliably. > > * In some language parsers, the JSON may throw an exception when reading the > > ID value. If this happens in your parser you will need to ‘pre-parse’ the > > data, removing or replacing ID parameters with their _str versions. > > > Summary > > ------------- > > 1) If you develop in Javascript, know that you will have to update your code > > to read the string version instead of the integer version. > > > 2) If you use a JSON decoder, validate that the example JSON, above, decodes > > without throwing exceptions. If exceptions are thrown, you will need to > > pre-parse the data. Please let us know the name, version, and language of > > the parser which throws the exception so we can investigate. > > > Timeline > > ----------- > > by 22nd October 2010 (Friday): String versions of ID numbers will start > > appearing in the API responses > > 4th November 2010 (Thursday) : Snowflake will be turned on but at ~41bit > > length > > 26th November 2010 (Friday) : Status IDs will break 53bits in length and > > cease being usable as Integers in Javascript based languages > > > We understand this isn’t as seamless a transition as we had planned and > > appreciate for some of you this change requires an update to your code. > > We’ve tried to give as much time as possible for you to make the migration > > and update your code to use the new string representations. > > > Our own products and tools are affected by the change and we will be making > > available any pre-parsing snippets we have created to ensure code continues > > to work with the new IDs. > > > Thanks for your support and understanding. > > > --- > > @themattharris > > Developer Advocate, Twitterhttp://twitter.com/themattharris > > -- Twitter developer documentation and resources: http://dev.twitter.com/doc API updates via Twitter: http://twitter.com/twitterapi Issues/Enhancements Tracker: http://code.google.com/p/twitter-api/issues/list Change your membership to this group: http://groups.google.com/group/twitter-development-talk