Re: [Libphidget-devel] serial numbers

[Jack S. <js...@ja...>]

On Thu, 2002-09-12 at 02:18, Vadim Tkachenko wrote:
> According to fit...@ph...:
> 
> > > Just a thought: why does the serial number have to be a number, no
> > > matter how coded? Give you an example: az93c12 - what's wrong with this
> > > number?
> > 
> > No good reason, it just happened this way.  The first piece of working
> > sample code I got my hands on did it this way, so that's what I do.
> > 
> > > What's the primary purpose of the serial number? Let me guess: unique
> > > identifier?
> > 
> > Yup.
> 
> Then, the string serves as good as the number, though you can a) add more
> significant information to it (like, the release variations, or specific
> options included into an instance of a phidget), b) extend the address space
> (though this is rather theoretical at this moment).
> 
> How much of the existing code will break if the serial happens to be a
> malformed number?

The code won't really break, but you won't have a valid unique Identify
and so might generate an exception when looking for the device (not
found because it couldn't locate the device).

Converting serial number to a string isn't that difficult, but I don't
think it is necessary right now.