[LinuxBIOS] [PATCH] LAR verison field

[Stefan Reinauer]

Carl-Daniel Hailfinger wrote:
> On 30.11.2007 02:55, Stefan Reinauer wrote:
>   
>> * Peter Stuge <peter at stuge.se> [071130 01:25]:
>>   
>>     
>>> On Fri, Nov 30, 2007 at 12:43:51AM +0100, Stefan Reinauer wrote:
>>>     
>>>       
>>>>> Together with reserving space at the end of the header.
>>>>>         
>>>>>           
>>>> Space reservation? What is this about?
>>>>       
>>>>         
>>> Some extra bytes for future use, the more bytes the longer before we
>>> need to change the format. I think 64 would be more than enough.
>>> No-one will ever need more than 64 bytes.
>>>     
>>>       
>> I disagree. If we start using unused bytes, we changed the format
>> already. There are clean ways that do not require "padding" to stay
>> compatible. If we add a field "header size" we know how many bytes we
>> have to skip without the need to know how to parse all of the header.
>>   
>>     
>
> The field "header size" needs space. That space could be used in a
> future version for something real if we reserved it.
>
>   
reserving space does not solve a real problem. It just adds another
static dependency and makes the code more fragile.

Postponing the problem is a bad solution. Especially if you want to
argue for 2-4 bytes while wasting them in a "reserved" field.

>> Please don't add reserved fields. thats really ugly and lack of design.
>>   
>>     
>
> Design is always in the eye of the beholder.

Not in this case, sorry.

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