Re:Parsing can become accidentally quadratic because of sscanf
by astrobe_ on Monday March 01, 2021 @01:29PM
(#26306183)
> Text always work
Windows vs Linux end-of-line markers often screws-up things. UTF often screws-up things. Tab-vs-space sometimes screws-up things. Text is related to Postel's principle, which is often questioned because it leads to sloppy implementations on one side and complex implementations on the other side, and other bug-is-now-a-feature niceties.
I designed a couple of small internal protocols, and have been maintaining them for at least a decade. Maintenance time is nearly 0 because I never had to add a field to them. Even though the software using them evolved a lot and in unexpected ways.
Yes, they stood the test of time because they solved the problem we had, and those problems didn't evolve much. Not every protocol or format needs to be hyper-extendable and scalable.
> even if inadequately
So it works poorly but it works, so it can be shipped. That's why you buy a new smartphone every two year and don't see much improvement in response time or battery life.
Windows vs Linux end-of-line markers often screws-up things. UTF often screws-up things. Tab-vs-space sometimes screws-up things. Text is related to Postel's principle, which is often questioned because it leads to sloppy implementations on one side and complex implementations on the other side, and other bug-is-now-a-feature niceties.
I designed a couple of small internal protocols, and have been maintaining them for at least a decade. Maintenance time is nearly 0 because I never had to add a field to them. Even though the software using them evolved a lot and in unexpected ways.
Yes, they stood the test of time because they solved the problem we had, and those problems didn't evolve much. Not every protocol or format needs to be hyper-extendable and scalable.
> even if inadequately
So it works poorly but it works, so it can be shipped. That's why you buy a new smartphone every two year and don't see much improvement in response time or battery life.