Re: [simspark-devel] Physical and Graphic Layers, and agent-server Binary Protocol

[Oliver O. <oli...@cs...>]

On 09/02/2009, at 6:57 AM, Mahdi wrote:

>   For the problem you mentioned about the binary size mismatch of  
> indormation in different cpu architectures, I did a bit of  
> searching, and found out that Microsoft dot net framework has  
> introduced some types like int32, int64 and like these, which gcc  
> yet does not support, or may not support at all. (Please correct me  
> if I am assuming wrong) So another way should be found around the  
> problem. Anybody got any idea?

I don't think that introducing a binary protocol is a good idea, and  
should be avoided if possible.
For the sensors we're using at the moment, a text based protocol is a  
good solution because it's human readable. A float always uses up 4  
bytes, and the text representation doesn't use much more (in some  
cases, it can use less). Plus you may introduce cross-platform issues  
that should be avoided. The work to implement and the hassle of using  
a binary protocol isn't worth the relatively small gain in efficiency.

There are two cases where it may be necessary: For camera data and  
player integration. So I'd like to suggest to think about a mixed  
protocol instead of pure binary. S-Expressions (the syntax for the  
protocol we're using now) support binary data, or another solution  
would be a binary protocol combined with the S-Exp for the existing  
sensors / actuators.

just my AU$0.02

cheers
Oliver