Re: linux-ipsec: syntax conventions, part 1

On Wed, 18 Mar 1998, John Gilmore wrote:

> We should never use subnet masks. We should designate subnets using

I agree with this. The only thing which full, dotted-quad syntax for subnet masks allows one to do is to establish non-contiguous subnets, which has been, every single time I've seen it, an error, and indeed I'm hard pressed to think of a situation where it'd be appropriate. a.b.c.d/e is the preferred syntax.

> Note also that "10" is a valid IP address; it means 10.0.0.0. You

I disagree with this. I advocate enforcing dotted-quad syntax for IP addresses for the same reason I like type-safe languages: they allow you to detect errors at compile time. The savings from not having to type '.0.0.0' is trivial; the cost of people typing in '18' and having it be silently interpreted as MIT's network is large.

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Todd Graham Lewis        Manager of Web Engineering    (800) 719-4664, x2804
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