Linux-kernel mailing list archive 2000-15,: Re: Suggested dual human/binary interface for proc/devfs

# Re: Suggested dual human/binary interface for proc/devfs

Alexander Viro (viro@math.psu.edu)
Mon, 10 Apr 2000 11:19:31 -0400 (EDT)

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On Mon, 10 Apr 2000, Ed Carp wrote:

> > So, we end up with all white space except newline ignored, but we
> > do have the line continuation character, which some people probably
> > find annoying. At least it doesn't have to be in column 72.
>
> The problem with this sort of mismash is that you spend more time writing a parser for the data than it's worth. But I guess people in this industry have forgotten KISS a long time ago. If I have to spend days writing a parser for ASCII data, my clients will hit the roof - and rightfully so.

Erm... You know, column 150-odd is also not a good idea...
[reformatted]
> The problem with this sort of mismash is that you spend more time writing a
> parser for the data than it's worth. But I guess people in this industry
> have forgotten KISS a long time ago. If I have to spend days writing a
> parser for ASCII data, my clients will hit the roof - and rightfully so.

Sure. _Why_ would writing a parser take more than 15 minutes it takes to
use yacc(1) and lex(1) and possibly 30 more to transliterate the results
into library-free variant? Or couple of hours to build the fscking tables
by hands. Sigh... I have to repeat my "ASCII is tough" comment - looks
like reading through the "Using flex and bison", let alone first chapters
of Aho & Ullman is oh-too-complex task. Sheesh...

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