Re: [PATCH] Open Firmware device tree virtual filesystem

Segher Boessenkool
2007-01-02T12:37:21Z

>> Simple system tools should not need to interpret binary data in
>> order to provide access to simple structured data like this, that's
>> just stupid.
>
> I would agree with you if the data was properly typed in the first
> place
> but it's not,

OF device tree properties are "properly typed" just fine -- it's
just that only the intended consumers of the data know what to
expect, you certainly can't derive the data structures from just
looking at the data in one instance of a property.

Put another way, if you know what you are looking for in the
device tree, you can decode a property just fine -- if you're
given a random property on the other hand, you can never get
any better than the generic property structure of "array of bytes".

Segher