Re: [Ntp] Experimental/Private EF area: was Re: Registries document

[Miroslav Lichvar <[e-mail]>]

On Thu, Aug 03, 2023 at 01:19:14AM -0700, Harlan Stenn wrote:
> As I said, the I-DO proposal is counting down from 0xFFFF for its work. I-DO
> exchanges information about both EFs and "capabilities".  An I-DO value of
> 0x0004 means "I-DO NTS", while 0x0005 means "I-DO Checksum Complement".
> 0xFFFF is "I-DO IPv6 REFID hashes" and 0xFFFE is "I-DO Leap Smear REFIDs".
> 
> This was all described in draft-stenn-ntp-i-do.

draft-stenn-ntp-i-do is nowhere close to publication. It can be easily
updated to use other values if necessary. I'm not sure why the
REFID-related capabilities should be tied to the EF numbering anyway.
They should have their own space.

> And the reason for not using 0xF000-0xFFFF (even if it was 0xE000-9xEFFF) is
> that it breaks 25 years of design and established coding, and stomps all
> over the ability to more cleanly code for a growing number of EFs.

25 years of design that nobody implemented yet. It might help if you
could show an example of what you see as the issue with flat 16-bit
types causing unclean code.

> I am not interested in wasting my time like that again.  As you have pointed
> out yourself, I am resource-limited and want to devote my efforts to things
> I believe are useful.

You are not the only one here with limited time to work on things.

-- 
Miroslav Lichvar