Re: Greetings and comments on MCP 2.1

[ramsdell@linus.mitre.org (John D. Ramsdell)]

Michael Brundage <brundage@piaf.ipac.caltech.edu> writes:

> > > In particular, instead of giving tagged data dummy values, give them the 
> > > data tag itself, and then use that tag (by itself) in the additional 
> > > lines sent.

....

and suggests replacing lines like:

> #$#blah multiline*: "" _data-tag: 123 multiline2*: ""

with 

> #$#blah multiline* = 123 multline2* = 456

and

> #$#* 123 multiline: The text goes here.

with

> #$#* 123 = The text goes here.

I strongly support this proposal to eliminating _data-tag: and find
this proposal superior to the alternative I proposed while back.  I'm
in the process of writing an MCP parser in Java with support for
multiline MCP messages.  The algorithm this proposal requires is
straight forward, in particular, using a separate data tag for each
multiline in one MCP message value greatly simplifies the parser.  I
take this as good evidence of the value of this proposal.

I'm not sure about equal sign vs. colon.  I guess I slightly prefer
the equal sign, but only very slightly.

John