RE: [PATCH 1/4] lib/hexdump.c: Allow 64 bytes per line

From: Alastair D'Silva
Date: Fri Apr 12 2019 - 19:22:26 EST


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> Subject: Re: [PATCH 1/4] lib/hexdump.c: Allow 64 bytes per line
>
> On Wed 2019-04-10 13:17:17, Alastair D'Silva wrote:
> > From: Alastair D'Silva <alastair@xxxxxxxxxxx>
> >
> > With modern high resolution screens, we can display more data, which
> > makes life a bit easier when debugging.
>
> I have quite some doubts about this feature.
>
> We are talking about more than 256 characters per-line. I wonder if such a
> long line is really easier to read for a human.

It's basically 2 separate panes of information side by side, the hexdump and
the ASCII version.

I'm using this myself when dealing with the pmem labels, and it works quite
nicely.

>
> I am not expert but there is a reason why the standard is 80 characters
per-
> line. I guess that anything above 100 characters is questionable.
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Line_length
> somehow confirms that.
>
> Second, if we take 8 pixels per-character. Then we need
> 2048 to show the 256 characters. It is more than HD.
> IMHO, there is still huge number of people that even do not have HD
display,
> especially on a notebook.

The intent is to make debugging easier when dealing with large chunks of
binary data. I don't expect end users to see this output.

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