• From: David Brownell <david-b@p...>
• To: John Cowan <jcowan@r...>,Michael Brennan <Michael_Brennan@a...>
• Date: Mon, 20 Aug 2001 15:25:56 -0700

> > I'll confess to being unfamiliar with ONC-RPC, but if it is only available
> > on UNIX, that doesn't quite cut it.
> 
> It is the underlying serialization (XDR) and remote procedure protocol
> (ONC RPC) for the widespread NFS remote file system protocol, and is
> documented in RFCs 1014 (XDR) and 1057 (RPC).

And was available on PCs (and ISTR Macs too) at the time
those two RFCs were published ... 


> > Also, if it is unable to handle
> > serializing complex graphs of data in a manner that is portable across
> > platforms, that also doesn't quite cut it.
> 
> COmplex graphs, no.  XDR serializes the usual primitive types, strings,
> fixed- and variable-sized octet sequences, fixed- and variable-length
> homogeneous arrays, structures, and discriminated unions.  So it can
> pretty much encode trees, but not arbitrary dags.

Encoding DAGs is an "exercise for the reader", as they
say. I've seen it done in dozens of ONC-RPC applications.
Turns out not to be very necessary, though.

- Dave

• References:
  • RE: XML.COM: How I Learned to Love daBomb
    • From: Michael Brennan <Michael_Brennan@a...>
  • Re: XML.COM: How I Learned to Love daBomb
    • From: John Cowan <jcowan@r...>

• Prev by Date: RE: Namespaces, schemas, Simon's filters.
• Next by Date: [Announce] dbXML XML Database 1.0 Beta Release
• Previous by thread: Re: XML.COM: How I Learned to Love daBomb
• Next by thread: RE: XML.COM: How I Learned to Love daBomb
• Index(es):
  • Date
  • Thread