Re: [Gnu-arch-users] Feature suggestion: "tla inventory -0"

[Tom Lord]

    > From: Brian May <address@hidden>

    > Initially we started of discussing a "tla inventory -0" option.

    > However, we seem to have changed to discussing "how should tla store the
    > filenames internally?". 


Actually, we changed to "how should unix programs in general exchange
structured data, especially so as to avoid problems such as character
set limitations on `fields'".


    > For this purpose, why not use an existing syntax, eg. the one
    > used to represent non-standard characters in URLs?

There are many such syntaxes to choose from, so it comes down to "pick
randomly" or find principled reasons to prefer one over another.
Given principled reasons, either an existing syntax satisfies them
none does -- saying "use an existing syntax" adds nothing to the
decision making.


    > I think it should still be possible to have a -0 option for tla
    > regardless of how arch stores filenames, for instance in
    > change-sets.

Many things are possible that lead just to a maintenance burden.

I think it's not _that_ hard to really fix these issues -- and that
NUL-separation is not really the solution.

Let's suppose we have a solution:  then tla can use that, and we can
provide a 50-line program that translates to NUL-separated fields for
interoperation with legacy tools.

-t