Steven M. Bellovin wrote:
> On Tue, 06 Jun 2006 21:01:46 -0700, "Garrett D'Amore"
> <garrett_damore@tadpole.com> wrote:
>
>   
>
>   
>> Understood. I believe that there is a real need for a binary format that
>> has a higher priority on efficiency. But it looks from above like you're
>> already working on that.
>>
>>     
> Is there?  I'm skeptical.  If I understand this properly, it's not
> something one does very often; in the total system scheme of things, it
> just doesn't matter.
>
> 		--Steven M. Bellovin, http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~smb
>   

I think there is. If you want to build a general hierarchy of ioctls
around this, you want them to be efficient. For wsdisplay purposes,
probably not. But there are lots of other potential uses where
efficiency does matter. I have direct experience with this at Sun, btw.
(Granted with packed "nvlists" rather than properties, but the concept
is similar.)

-- 
Garrett D'Amore, Principal Software Engineer
Tadpole Computer / Computing Technologies Division,
General Dynamics C4 Systems
http://www.tadpolecomputer.com/
Phone: 951 325-2134  Fax: 951 325-2191