[rrd-developers] implementing portable format

[Daniel Pocock]

> CHOICE OF ON-DISK ENCODING:
>
> * estimate user base, choose most common architecture for native format
>      - probably i386?
>
>
>   
[snip]

> SUPPORT FOR OLD VERSIONS:
>
> * Create a new stat_head.version = "0005" for the new portable RRD
>
>   

There are a few thoughts that come to mind (not all directly related to 
my immediate business requirements):

- maybe the new format should allow a small set of alternate encodings, 
with a discriminator field - rrdtool will then decide what translation 
is required on a file-by-file basis - users could then choose default to 
the format they prefer, but have seamless use of the other formats

- modularisation (even if statically linked) is a good thing - let's try 
and separate and modularise the translation and storage code so that it 
can be adapted at run time as required

- I've also had a play with JRobin a while back, it is neat for a J2EE 
developer - we should look to interoperate with Java at some level - it 
could be interesting to combine rrdtool data with tools like 
JasperReports (for report presentation) and iReport (for interactive 
report design)

Regards,

Daniel