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RE: going back to stone axes
At 06:08 2/28/96, FreedmanJ wrote:
>[...] some sort of specification language and
>standardized encoding rules would be nice as opposed to an ad hoc encoding
>everytime something new comes up. I also don't think I am alone in speculating
>that ASN1 is (or could be ) such a language. It has problems and before we
>jettison it it would be nice to figure out what the problems are/were.
I agree that some such language would be nice.
The main problem with ASN.1, for my purposes, is that it isn't close enough
to any real target programming language's data structure definition
constructs to invoke the programmer's training -- looking ahead to packing,
parsing and using structures and wanting to do so efficiently and simply.
For example, a small extension to PASCAL's type definitions [and
a restriction, leaving out any mechanisms which permit overlays [a la FORTRAN
EQUIVALENCE]] should properly invoke the programmer in people and prevent
the encouragement to define structures which are ugly to work with.
- Carl
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