BuffDB is a Rust library to simplify multi-plexing on edge devices • Hacker News Board

Re: BuffDB is a Rust library to simplify multi-plexing on edge devices

#31

Post by cryptonector » Tue, Aug 27, 2024, 4:36 AM UTC

ithkuil wrote: post #28

cryptonector wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the decoder can [...] tolerate unknown fields. See ASN.1's extensibility rules. If you mark a record type (SEQUENCE, in ASN.1 parlance) as extensible, then when you later add fields (members, in ASN.1 parlance) the encoding rules have to make it possible to skip/ignore those fields when decoded by software implementing the pre-extension type. PER/OER will include a length for all the extension fields for this purpo…

You make it sound like protobuf was invented yesterday. Sure it's not so old like ASN.1 but protobuf now about a quarter century old and battle tested as the main interchange format for at least one giant company with gazillions of projects that needed to interoperate. One of the design requirements was simplicity and ease of implementation and for all the love in the world I can muster for ASN.1 I must admit it's fa…

A subset of ASN.1 can be simple enough. There was no need to re-invent the wheel, and to do it badly.

> IIRC complete and open implementations of ASN.1 were/are rare and the matrix of covered features didn't quite overlap between languages.

When protobufs was designed there were zero protobufs implementations.

Re: BuffDB is a Rust library to simplify multi-plexing on edge devices

#32

Post by eddd-ddde » Tue, Aug 27, 2024, 4:56 AM UTC

38 wrote: post #29

eddd-ddde wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually don't think it'd be so bad. Ideally it is capnproto instead of protobuf, but in general the same applies. It is a _transport_ protocol. You can still write your config or data in any format you like.

you're not getting it. imagine if every single public website today using JSON switches to protobuf, you instantly lost most if not all ability to reverse those sites.

You are assuming websites offer an end user api via json but that's just a side effect, an implementation detail.

Re: BuffDB is a Rust library to simplify multi-plexing on edge devices

#33

Post by cryptonector » Tue, Aug 27, 2024, 5:06 AM UTC

38 wrote: post #29

eddd-ddde wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually don't think it'd be so bad. Ideally it is capnproto instead of protobuf, but in general the same applies. It is a _transport_ protocol. You can still write your config or data in any format you like.

you're not getting it. imagine if every single public website today using JSON switches to protobuf, you instantly lost most if not all ability to reverse those sites.

All these sites go through an evolution where they start out having open APIs, attracting third party developers, then eating their lunch and closing the APIs. No one in this sub-thread is saying that's desirable. But also nothing you can do can stop them from using something other than JSON.