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

[Petr Mladek]

On Sat 2019-04-13 09:22:05, Alastair D'Silva wrote:
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Petr Mladek <pmladek@xxxxxxxx>
> > Sent: Friday, 12 April 2019 11:48 PM
> > To: Alastair D'Silva <alastair@xxxxxxxxxxx>
> > Cc: alastair@xxxxxxxxxxx; Jani Nikula <jani.nikula@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>;
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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 sure that it works for you. But I do not believe that it
would be useful in general.


> > 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.

How is it supposed to be used then? Only by your temporary patches?

Best Regards,
Petr