RE: Re: xPLHubs (again!)

["John B" <home-automation@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mal Lansell [mailto:mlansell@xxxxxxx]
> Sent: 15 March 2005 00:12
> To: ukha_xpl@xxxxxxx
> Subject: [ukha_xpl] Re: xPLHubs (again!)
>
>
>
> In general I'd agree with your points, but in this particular
> case, I don't think that cross platform issues figure at all.

But surely it would make sense to have a common file format that all
hubs would use - regardless of which platform they were running on.

> The file is not transferred between machines - it is used
> only by applications running on that computer.  Byte ordering
> is irrelevant because a file written on a Mac (for example)
> would only be read back on that same Mac, and not by another PC.

That's true - but should we really be coming up with platform-specific
formats if we can instead use a common text file format that can be
shared across all platforms?

> The same goes for file location - hubs compiled for Linux can
> specify their own location, suited to that operating system.

I agree - the file location is something which would need to be decided
on a platform-specific basis.

> I would normally agree with 2), allowing the format to be
> extended, but if we were to do that, it could only be due to
> changing the hub behaviour (because the format already
> contains all we need to run the existing hubs).  A change to
> the hubs would require all libraries with hub code to be
> updated anyway, and the format could be changed at that point.

Agreed - I can't see a situation where extra data would need to be
stored unless there are big changes to the way in which hubs operate.
However, if we go with CSV, we can simply state that any extra fields,
after the 3 that are specified, can simply be ignored by any hub that
doesn't understand them.

Regards,

John


xPL Links: http://www.xplproject.org.uk http://www.xplhal.com http://www.xpl.myby.co.uk
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