Re: Best practice for data encoding?

[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

 



On Mon, 5 Jun 2006 20:59:32 -0400 , "Gray, Eric" <Eric.Gray@xxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

> Steven,
> 
> 	I'm not sure what you mean by saying that a problem that is
> highly complex should not be solved (or, at least, that we should
> consider not solving it).  That seems like a cop-out.  Minimally,
> every problem we've ever faced, we've tried to solve (where "we"
> refers to us weak-kneed Homo Sapiens) - no matter how hard it was
> to do so - and I like to think that is the right thing to do.
> 
> 	In fairness, I am reasonably sure that point 3 in RFC 1925 
> refers to making a complex solution work, even if a simpler answer
> might be found, simply because enough people want that solution.  
> 
> 	It does not - IMO - rule out solving complex problems using 
> as simple a solution as possible, however complex that might be.

I meant exactly what I said.  The reason to avoid certain "solutions" is
that you'll then behave as if the problem is really solved, with bad
consequences if you're wrong -- and for some problems, you probably are
wrong. Read David Parnas' "Software Aspects of Strategic Defense
Systems" (available at
http://klabs.org/richcontent/software_content/papers/parnas_acm_85.pdf);
also consider the historical record on why the US and the USSR signed a
treaty banning most anti-missile systems, and in particular why the
existence of such systems made the existing nuclear deterrent standoff
unstable.

Note carefully that I didn't say we shouldn't do research on how to solve
things.  But doing research and declaring that we know how to do something
are two very different things.

		--Steven M. Bellovin, http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~smb

_______________________________________________

Ietf@xxxxxxxx
https://www1.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ietf

[Index of Archives]     [IETF Annoucements]     [IETF]     [IP Storage]     [Yosemite News]     [Linux SCTP]     [Linux Newbies]     [Fedora Users]