On Tue, 15 Nov 2011 19:56:09 +0100 Manuel Bouyer <bou...@antioche.eu.org> wrote:
> The actual quotactl interface has a version number embeeded, for this > reason. But, for example, some fields can be added to the strucure > without changing the version number. The consumer will just notice if > the new field is present or not and real with it; this provides > backward and forward compat (older consumers will just ignore the new > fields). This is somethig you can't do with a binary format. You don't really want to hang your hat on that argument, do you? Or are you using some form of text not represented by zeros and ones? Surely you can imagine a binary protocol in which some parts are optional and that can be extended in ways that older clients can ignore. I know you can, because text *is* binary. Since the difference between "text" and "binary" is cultural convention, neither one is inherently more or less capable as far as the computer is concerned. --jkl
