Re: Magic numbers

Version and magic number are different.

IP headers start with a 4-bit version number (RFC791, still at 0x4).
The magic number "IP" is defined in the encapsulation (e.g., in RFC894 for
Ethernet, still at 0x0800).

So the answer to "Does DIME need version?" is Yes, and the question about
magic numbers is "What will be the encapsulation layers for DIME, and does
they have sufficient meta-data expressive power to say 'DIME'?"

-----Original Message-----
From: Rich Salz [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Sunday, July 21, 2002 8:00 AM
To: Dror Harari
Cc: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [DIME] Magic numbers


Magic numbers identify file types.  You have a file lying around on-disk,
you know what to do with it.  What's the benefit to a network protocol?
Rather than anologies to Java jar files, what about ip/tcp headers?
        /r$