On Sun, Sep 25, 2005 at 10:04:16AM -1000, Joshua Hoblitt wrote: > * Expands the header to be 32 bytes in size.
OK > * The magic number is no longer an opcode outside the header. It is > now an 8 byte magic string at the the beginning of the header. I should think four would do, but no matter. > * Bytes 20 through 31 are now padding so the core.op fingerprint can > be expanded in the future. Marvy. Important note: All those bytes *must* be zeros in the current implementation. See below. > * Do we need to keep the Opcode Type? It's not clear to me what it's used > for. > > +----------+----------+----------+----------+ > | Opcode Type (Perl = 0x5045524c) | > +----------+----------+----------+----------+ I don't think it's useful. A pbc file is Parrot byte code; if Parrot learns to translate .NET, Python, or JVM files, it'll read them in their native formats. > * Does it make sense to use a fix size header? The offset of the first > segment could be calculated by multiplying an "offset byte" and the > wordsize. We don't have to decide that. A fixed size header now does not foreclose the possiblity that byte #31 will be that "how many more words should be considered part of the header" feature you suggest. -- Chip Salzenberg <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
