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> > > > Binary formats are bad because they tend towards being > > > > proprietary, and that's the last thing that should happen to > > > > the world's next "intellectual commons". > > > > > > True in the document world, perhaps. But not so obviously true > > > in the protocol world. For example, DNS question and answer > > > payloads are an example of an open, structured, binary format. > > > > I'm fully aware. But you also ought to consider exactly how > > open and extensible DNS is -- by seeing whether you can > > get to two hands when you count implementations (BIND, > > and hardly any other servers), and extensions (rare). > > If you mean particular identifiable implementations, then no, > not unless I'm allowed to count BINDs 4, 8, and 9 separately. Nope, and not client-only implementations either! :) DNS is not an example of a "widely implemented" protocol; "widely deployed" is rather different. (Arguably, you just picked a bad example ... where there's really only one significant implementation.) > Interoperability isn't simply due to a lack of diversity. Actually, for DNS it's been a major factor. Original specs did not match the implementation, and for all I know that's still an issue ... because that implementation was so widely deployed that it became the real protocol spec. > > There's also the "out of sight, out of mind" issue. Once things > > get binary, the number of people who can detect mistakes (much > > less shenanigans!) declines by orders of magnitude. That means > > that interop becomes more fragile; which also pushes things > > towards proprietary behaviors/bugsets. > > I understand your concern, and I share it. But I think you're > overestimating the extent to which text is a defence. I just said "orders of magnitude", I didn't say how big the original pool of "interoperability defenders" would be! Small enough that a significantly smaller pool is the wrong idea, in my book, and changing the system to encourage a smaller pool bothers me. - Dave
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