[Yhc] Regarding Yhc bytecode versioning

Samuel Bronson naesten at gmail.com
Mon Oct 30 06:54:03 EST 2006


On 10/29/06, Robert Dockins <Robdockins at fastmail.fm> wrote:

> It may also be a good time to think about a ways to future-proof the
> file format so that future additions can be made without breaking
> compatibility.  Right now the format is quite fragile.  Perhaps we
> could take inspiration from the Java classfile format.  The basic
> idea is that there are named blocks of data with a minimal header
> which gives the name of the block and the size of the data payload.
> The name of the block defines the meaning of the data.  Eg, the
> 'CODE' block contains bytecode instructions, etc.  If any block is
> encountered with an unrecognized name, it is ignored.  That way, one
> can have optional blocks, or one can add blocks without breaking
> compatibility.  One can also have optional information (like
> debugging symbols) and things of that nature.

Do they all have four character names in the java classfile format?
Like in PNG or IFF or RIFF(the basis of the horrid AVI container
format, among other things)?


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