Path: utzoo!utgpu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!sdd.hp.com!think.com!linus!philabs!ttidca!hollombe
From: hollombe@ttidca.TTI.COM (The Polymath)
Newsgroups: alt.hackers
Subject: The rutgers problem (and a hack)
Message-ID: <23823@ttidca.TTI.COM>
Date: 22 Feb 91 01:29:31 GMT
Organization: The Cat Factory
Lines: 41
Approved: Because I say so.


There's a very simple solution to flames and other inappropriate posts:

                      Ignore it and it will go away.

This has been tried and tested in other groups and it works well.  Even
the stubbornest net.bozo soon tires of shouting at a blank wall.  Non-
response is the best defense.

Ob. hack:

A function that analyzes packetized NAPLPS descriptions on-the-fly in real
time.

The good news:  First and last packets are flagged and all are guaranteed
to be in proper sequence.

The bad news:  A packet boundary can fall at any byte in any of the NAPLPS
description fields.  The fields range from several hundred bytes long to
single, bit-mapped bytes and have very little in common with each other.
The number of packets expected for a given description is indeterminate.
The last packet, which may also be the first, is usually short.

The solution involves a massive for loop, more switches and cases than I
like to think about and a stable of static variables.

The following comment sits just before the for loop:

     /****************************************************************/
     /* Main analysis loop.  Initial value of i set in preceding if. */
     /* Walks through packet one byte at a time.  Yes, it really is  */
     /* nearly 600 lines long.  Sorry about that.  If you haven't    */
     /* read the documentation listed in the function header,        */
     /*                     DON'T MESS WITH IT!                      */
     /****************************************************************/

-- 
The Polymath (aka: Jerry Hollombe, M.A., CDP, aka: hollombe@ttidca.tti.com)
Head Robot Wrangler at Citicorp                   Illegitimis non
3100 Ocean Park Blvd.   (213) 450-9111, x2483       Carborundum
Santa Monica, CA  90405 {rutgers|pyramid|philabs|psivax}!ttidca!hollombe


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