IPP Mail Archive: IPP> RE: IFX> New data types [for IPP W

IPP> RE: IFX> New data types [for IPP WG agenda]

From: Hastings, Tom N (hastings@cp10.es.xerox.com)
Date: Tue Mar 06 2001 - 14:02:37 EST

  • Next message: Hastings, Tom N: "RE: IFX> Re: IPP> New data types [why the length of IPP data is s igned short]"

    Paul and IPP FAXers,

    I wasn't at the Maui meeting (and haven't seen any minutes).

    And I'm sorry not to be at the meeting today.

    However, I question the idea of adding new long data types. I thought it
    made much more sense to make the attributes be (1setOf text(MAX)) and
    (1setOf octetString(MAX)). Then you could have an arbitrary number of 1023
    octet strings. There would be no 32K or 64K limit. We'd never have to add
    new data types. AND MOST IMPORTANT, IPP FAX would be compatible with
    current IPP (which was one of our main goals). Then current Printer
    implementations could support the added features of IPP FAX, but would not
    have to add fundamental mechanisms, such as new data types.

    If you think it is a problem to break up CONNEG strings at arbitrary
    boundaries, and alternative would be to have an IPP FAX Printer attribute
    that is the URL to the conneg text file. Advantages:

    a. The conneg file could also be any length.
    b. The conneg file could be on another server.
    c. A client implementation that also supports Internet FAX would be dealing
    with the same CONNEG text strings as a unit that come back from the server.

    As Paul suggests, this should be also discussed at the IPP WG meeting,
    tommorrow, March 7.

    Tom

    -----Original Message-----
    From: pmoore@netreon.com [mailto:pmoore@netreon.com]
    Sent: Monday, January 29, 2001 09:42
    To: ipp@pwg.org
    Cc: ifx@pwg.org
    Subject: IFX> New data types

    Fellow IPPers,

    In the IPP Fax meeting in Maui (1/26/01) we decided that we needed two new
    data
    types to deal with large lumps of data.

    BigText. This is just like Text except that it is up to 65535 bytes long
    BigOctetString. This is just like OctetString except it is up to 65535 bytes
    long.

    BigText is used for vcard representation of users. [Note to ifx attendees -
    this
    does need to be text since it contains localized human readable data - my
    mistake].

    BigOctetString is used for CONNEG data. We are alos considering using it for
    carrying digital certificates.

    We considered several alternatives but this seemed the cleanest solution.

    Can I therefore ask that this be a topic for your next meeting so that you
    can
    bless this change (or not of course!)

    THnaks

    Paul Moore
    IPP Fax Chair



    This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Tue Mar 06 2001 - 14:05:24 EST