[NUT-devel] Another suggestion for broadcast [PATCH]

[Måns Rullgård]

Michael Niedermayer wrote:
> On Wed, Feb 20, 2008 at 09:32:48AM +0000, Måns Rullgård wrote:
>> Rich Felker <dalias at aerifal.cx> writes:
>>
>> > On Wed, Feb 20, 2008 at 01:32:14AM +0000, Måns Rullgård wrote:
>> >> Another possibility is to precede each optional field with a 1-bit
>> >> flag indicating its presence.  The size of the containing element can
>> >> then also implicitly exclude any unused fields at the end.  This may
>> >> of course not be desired for frequently repeated elements where the
>> >> flags could be specified in a global header.
>> >
>> > I hope you understand, a 1bit field means a 1byte field. NUT has no
>> > support for sub-byte data units except when they're appropriately
>> > padded with reserved bits.
>>
>> Sounds like a deficiency.
>
> In what respect? That is what would we gain with droping byte alignment?
> I think we would gain a lot of complexity primarely ;)

I thought Nut was supposed to have minimal overhead.  Requiring a syntax
element to use 8 bits, even if it doesn't need them is not minimal.

If you're willing to sacrifice a few bits for reduced complexity, that's
fine.  I merely had the, apparently incorrect, impression that Nut was
trying very hard to remove any unnecessary overhead, even in the text
of the format specification ;-)

-- 
Måns Rullgård
mans at mansr.com