> > This is supposed to be a full-fleged secure, robust replacement for syslog
> > in modern environments where neither network nor CPU bandwidth, nor disk
> > storage, is at a premium.
> <snip>
>
> We're definitely moving towards bigger stuff all the time, yes. However, I
> dont - personally - see that as good reason to make something bloated
> without much of a gain easyness of implementation. On a less personal
> level, I have.. lets say, a couple, 128Kbit pipes. These pipes are pretty
> loaded by the application (dedicated system) as is. A slick system could
> coexist with the other stuff on the pipes. A hog system cant. As for the
> cost of these pipes, it's definitely enough to pay for a daycare center or
> somesuch. Sens morale? Your bandwidth mightnt be worth anything. Mine is,
> hence, it's in my interest to remind people that yes, in the real world,
> stuff costs.
My problem with XML is that stuffing an XML parser into the implementation
just to tag message parts is bloat. It's not that difficult to write a
parser for Radius-like packets (I just wrote a radius implementation for my
own purposes in a day), and we could even define an exact mapping
between the binary packets and xml. Bandwidth is a precious resource, and
with an attitude that everything is cheap, we'll end up in a protocol, which
remains a specification.
We could use XML to define the tags, and also define a compressed, binary
format to be transmitted in wire. And implementations could choose to
implement one, or both.
And again we should not forget that lots of legacy apps still use and will
use the old syslog() API for a long time, which doesn't let you tag message
parts. And encapsulating lots of messages into XML tags just for the sake of
XML is pointless.
A binary packet could be very similar to RADIUS:
0 1 2 3
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Code | Identifier | Length |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| |
| Authenticator |
| |
| |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Attributes ...
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-
The only exception to radius would be that tagnames would be transmitted as
strings, and not as binary numbers.
--
Bazsi
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