Re: [HACKERS] cidr

> On Mon, 20 Jul 1998, Paul A Vixie wrote:
>
> > > As far as the name, we just want a name that makes it clear to novices what
> > > the module does.  ip_and_mac is pretty clear.  I have no idea what a cidr
> > > is.  If you can think of a more descriptive name, let's go for it.
> >
> > cidr = classless internet domain routing.  it's the "204.152.184/21" notation.
> >
> > i'm not sure we need a type name that makes sense to novices.  what we need
> > is an example in the "type range" column.  if we can say that int2's allowed
> > ranges are 0 to 65535 and have folks get what we mean without further intro,
> > then we can teach novices about cidr by saying that allowable ranges are 0/0
> > through 255.255.255.255/32.

Paul, yes, I have seen this address style on several machines, and I
understand it supersede the class A,B,C addresses by allowing arbitrary
netmasks.

We can call it cidr.  That is fine.  I was just concerned that if we put
it in contrib, that people who have never heard of cidr, like me, can
recognize the usefulness of the type for their applications.

Also, I would assume we can handle old-style non-cidr address just as
cleanly, so both cidr and non-cidr can use the same type and functions.


>     I have to agree with Paul here...its like mis-representing tuples
> as rows and fields as columns.  It means the same, but it *isn't* the
> proper terminology.  By using 'ip_and_mac' where it should be 'cidr', we
> are just propagating incorrect terminology...
>
>     With that in mind, can we work at having a 'cidr' type as part of
> the overall system, vs contrib?  I know that *I* would use it alot more if
> I didn't have to think of loading it separately...and I can think of at
> least two of my projects that I'd use it in...
>
>     Considering that we are now up to three ppl out there that are
> willing to work on this, I think we should be able to come up with a
> 'consensus' as to what we are going to be considering "the standard" for
> the base implementation?

Yes, I agree, this is a HOT type, and should be installed in the default
system.  Contrib is for testing/narrow audience, and this type certainly
should be mainstream.  This is the third generation of the type, with a
wide audience.  int8 is also coming into the main tree via Thomas.

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