"Programmers can't get IPv6 thus that is why they do not have IPv6 in their applications"....

Thu Nov 29 21:13:28 UTC 2012

Why would I want to do that instead of store it as a single 128 bit integer or bit-field?

Owen

Sent from my iPad

On Nov 29, 2012, at 6:01 AM, Ray Soucy <rps at maine.edu> wrote:

> You should store IPv6 as a pair of 64-bit integers.  While PHP lacks
> the function set to do this on its own, it's not very difficult to do.
> 
> Here are a set of functions I wrote a while back to do just that
> (though I admit I should spend some time to try and make it more
> elegant and I'm not sure it's completely up to date compared to my
> local copy ... I would love some eyes on it to make some
> improvements).
> 
> http://soucy.org/project/inet6/
> 
> 
> 
> 
> I would point out that many developers don't even store IP addresses
> correctly and just treat them as a string.  In regards to storing as a
> pair of 64-bit integers, I would caution against the temptation of
> treating one field as the prefix and the other as the host segment.
> While the 64-bit boundary is most common, it is certainly not
> required, so please write your IPv6 support in a way that will allow
> any valid prefix-length.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> While PHP hasn't been my language of choice in the past, it seems to
> be something that almost everyone knows, or can learn very quickly.
> I've started using it as a command line scripting language quite a bit
> as a result ... pretty much a cleaner Perl, the upshot is that you
> don't have all the pre-written libraries that you'd find with Perl.
> I've tried switching to Python for some things, but I got annoyed with
> the specification being in a constant state of drastic syntax change.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> But back to the topic at hand.  I think the OP was expressing that
> until developers have native IPv6 access at home, they just won't care
> about IPv6 support, or won't test it as well as IPv4 support.  That's
> pretty much expected and I'm not even sure why it's being stated as
> some revelation.  As many have pointed out, there are tunnel brokers
> available to developers to test IPv6 with, but at the end of the day,
> most people don't want to use a slow tunnel for anything byond
> testing, and if they don't have a lot of users asking for IPv6 they're
> probably not going to give it much attention until they see a need for
> it.
> 
> The majority of larger applications support IPv6 just fine because
> there are enough users asking for IPv6 support.  I suspect once you
> see native IPv6 for residential users become more common you'll see
> the developers who have been dragging their feet give in and add IPv6
> support.
> 
> As mentioned with a shift to web applications though the browser, it's
> been a lot less work.  Just throw your application on a server with
> IPv6 and it will generally work.  You might need to modify a few
> places that interact with IP addresses, but usually they're pretty
> trivial (like logging) unless it's a network management oriented
> application.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On Thu, Nov 29, 2012 at 8:15 AM, Jeroen Massar <jeroen at unfix.org> wrote:
>> On 2012-11-29 13:53 ,  . wrote:
>>> On 29 November 2012 12:48, Dobbins, Roland <rdobbins at arbor.net> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>> On Nov 29, 2012, at 6:47 PM, Bjørn Mork wrote:
>>>> 
>>>>> What's the proper term for software which happens to access the network?
>>>> 
>>>> Just about anything, these days.
>>>> 
>>>> ;>
>>>> 
>>>> 'Network-enabled' or 'network-capable' software, maybe?
>>> 
>>> Connecting a app to a network is a fundamental change, so perhaps
>>> change the app to become a "network app".  A piece of software
>>> connected to a network turns from a product into a service.
>>> 
>>> "Programmers" is to a wide group of people.  I am PHP programmer. How
>>> will ipv6 impact me? nothing, probably.
>> 
>> *ahem*
>> 
>> As Owen already alluded to, some programs (PHP also) actually store IP
>> addresses in databases. Thus if you where storing those as 32bit, you
>> are out of luck.
>> 
>> [..]
>>> There are two groups of programmers, a)  these that have programming
>>> only as a job,  and  b) these that invest time beyond that.
>> 
>> Group a for you? :)
>> 
>> Greets,
>> Jeroen
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Ray Patrick Soucy
> Network Engineer
> University of Maine System
> 
> T: 207-561-3526
> F: 207-561-3531
> 
> MaineREN, Maine's Research and Education Network
> www.maineren.net