[PATCH 33/43] site.c, magic.h: Formalize the system of message variants.

[Ian Jackson]

Mark Wooding writes ("Re: [PATCH 33/43] site.c, magic.h: Formalize the system of message variants."):
> The important part of the change wasn't in the simplification of those
> exhaustive lists -- that was just an opportunity I grabbed at without
> thinking -- but in the flow of `unpick_msg' and `generate_msg', which
> make essential use of the variant ordering.  Rather than just assume
> that the message labels are ordered, which I guess I could have done, I
> wanted to make the arrangement more formal.
> 
> Really, how important is the palindrome thing?  If we don't really care,
> then I have the following suggestion (tested against the existing codes
> and exhaustively checked for invertability on all 2^16 major and minor
> numbers):

I don't care about the palindrome thing.  I suspect it may even be
harmful.  I didn't invent it and I don't think Steve thought about it
enough.

>         /* MAJ   MIN
>          * abcd wxyz
>          *
>          * 0d0d 0d0d
>          * 000a bc00
>          * z000 00z0
>          * wxy0 0000
>          */

I am currently too sleepy to make sense of this proposal I'm afraid.
I will look at it again tomorrow.

Ian.