On Jul 10, 2021, at 12:44 PM, Michael Richardson <mcr+i...@sandelman.ca> wrote: > Alan DeKok <al...@deployingradius.com> wrote: >> Networks are generally organized by configuration, not by state. >> i.e. the "state" of the network, such as it is, is buried inside a >> random grab-bag collection of configuration files and running data >> structures, on multiple systems, in multiple formats. There is no way >> to say "move to state X", or even to query what state the network is >> currently in. > > That's an interesting and rather profound observation, I think.
Thanks. As background, most of the networking code I've written in the last 25 years is wrong. Not that it doesn't work, it does. But as time progresses, I find myself moving to a much more state oriented approach. The code is easier to understand, and easier to debug > 90% of debugging (of both programs and networks) is about getting the right > set of observations. A difficulty is that it's so hard to capture the > state. Especially when the state is embodied in a collection of variables, and if/then/else procedural code which checks those variables. As compared to "the current state handler is function X. So I know it's in state X". How did it get there? That's easy, instrument the state transitions, and print those out. Alan DeKok. _______________________________________________ Anima mailing list Anima@ietf.org https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/anima
