RE: iSCSI: BASE64 and numerical values

["Michael Krueger" <michael.krueger@windriver.com>]

> So I'd like to suggest we disallow using base64 to encode numbers.
> Byte-swapping an arbitrary-length byte stream seems really messy.
> Alternatively, I'd like to suggest we constrain base64-encoded numbers to
> be 1, 2, 4, or 8 bytes long when decoded, and to be in network byte order.

Bill, thanks for bringing this up, because I wanted to make the same point.
Implementing base-64 encoding for numbers is a fair amount of work for very
little benefit--no, let me be blunt: for ZERO benefit.  As I understand it,
the whole idea of the text-based login was to make it human-readable and to
allow cutting and pasting of values from, say, a management console.  Maybe
I lack imagination, but I cannot conceive of any real-world circumstance
under which a NUMBER would be displayed on a console or entered by a human
(except, perhaps, by a pathologically mischievous one ;-) in base-64
encoding.  A BINARY ITEM, yes, but a NUMBER, never.

Let's keep it simple: decimal and hexadecimal for numbers, hexadecimal and
base 64 for binary items.

Michael

--
Michael J. Krueger              mailto:michael.krueger@windriver.com
Wind River Networks                         http://www.windriver.com
500 Wind River Way                               phone: 510-749-2130
Alameda, CA  94501                                 fax: 510-749-2010