Re: ASN.1 (Was: [9fans] More 'Sam I am')

[geoff@collyer.net]

Hmm, the old language-specific argument.  The usual solution to this
is to use a binary encoding, the theory being that by avoiding words,
you avoid chauvinism.  I'd still rather have a textual format, even if
the attribute names have to be translated for speakers of other
languages (they'd have to translate a binary encoding into their own
language anyway).  If we wanted to inconvenience everyone equally, the
attribute names could be gibberish.

I'm not convinced that the slight inefficiency matters, particular for
a message format.  We do build indices in /lib/ndb to speed searches,
but that's for searching, not just encoding for transmission.  If
you're thinking of binary-decimal conversion overheads, one could
insist upon using octal representation (as tar does), which can be
converted more quickly than decimal, though that does make it a little
less human-friendly.

There has to be mapping between message format and something like a C
struct (some internal representation).  ASN.1 attempts to describe
both, as I understand it, to facilitate conversion between the two.