Re: iSCSI - decimal coded binary strings - a proposed resolution

[Paul Koning <ni1d@arrl.net>]

>>>>> "Julian" == Julian Satran <Julian_Satran@il.ibm.com> writes:

 Julian> Paul - I think we are talking again about two different
 Julian> thinks:

 Julian> numerical values that could be more than 2**64 - I would not
 Julian> forbid it there

 Julian> bit strings that could be longer than 64 bits - I find it
 Julian> acceptable

 Julian> The new text could be:

 Julian> decimal-constant: an unsigned decimal number - the digit 0 or
 Julian> a string of 1 or more digits starting with a non-zero digit.
 Julian> Decimal-constants are used to encode numerical values or
 Julian> binary strings. Decimal constants can be used to encode
 Julian> binary strings only if the stringlength is explicitly
 Julian> speci-fied. There is no implicit length for decimal
 Julian> strings. This encoding MUST NOT used for numerical values
 Julian> equal or greater than 2**64 or binary strings that could be
 Julian> longer than 64 bits.

There currently are no numeric values >= 2**64.  But in any case, I
don't like the idea there either.  What I proposed makes the encoding
an attribute of the parameter -- either it can always be encoded in
decimal, or it never can be.

What you're proposing does that for binary strings.  But for numeric
values, the encoding permitted would depend on the particular value.
I don't see any sense in that extra complexity.

    paul