RE: New Technical Issues RE: WG last call in progress on VLAN/Priority Draft

["Glen Zorn \(gwz\)" <gwz@cisco.com>]

Nelson, David <> supposedly scribbled:

> Glen Zorn writes....
> 
>> For this to be wrong, there must be a non-infinite representation of
>> any integer.  However, no such representation exists; the proof is
>> left as a (trivial) exercise for the reader.
> 
> The fact that computer representations of integers cannot take on
> infinite, does not invalidate the point I was attempting to make. 

You said "Someone offered the suggestion that Integers are not simply the mathematical definition, i.e. the positive and negative whole numbers and zero, that we all learned in high school.  With all due respect, I think that's patently wrong."  That they are not is patently false.  

> BTW, there has been work on indefinite precision arithmetic, which
> permits extensible range integers, but not infinite ones.

That is irrelevant, I think.
   
> 
>> Indeed, there is as much as you want; the questions are, how useful
>> is it to go down that road & (if it is at all useful), how far do we
>> want to go? 
> 
> That, indeed, is the crux of the debate.
> 
>> With all due respect, I think that you are the one doing the
>> overloading: RFC 2568 says 
>> 
>> 	integer   32 bit unsigned value, most significant octet first.
>> 
>> That's it.  No range, no interpretation, nothing else.
> 
> I beg to differ.  The way I interpret this RADIUS data type is as
> follows:
> 
> (1) Its an integer.

Impossible.

> (2) The range is defined as 0 .. 2**32-1.

But that's not what it _says_; what it _says_ is "32 bit unsigned value".

> (3) Its unsigned.
> (4) Its big-endian.
> 
> I see nothing that indicates this data type is anything other than an
> integer, typically expressed in a C language declaration as "unsigned
> long". 

OK, let's just accept this latter statement as valid.  Now, everybody who has never written a 
C program that treated an unsigned long as a string of bits (rather than a whole number) raise their hands (& send a note justifying your presence on this list ;-).

Hope this helps,

~gwz

Why is it that most of the world's problems can't be solved by simply
  listening to John Coltrane? -- Henry Gabriel

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