···
2
+
title: "Treachery of Representation"
3
+
date: 2020-04-27T13:06:26+02:00
4
+
lastmod: 2020-04-27T13:06:26+02:00
6
+
Representation is not data - something that developers (and not only them)
7
+
often forgot when working with different data.
14
+
16
+
I had that discussion on different chats few times already, but it is always
17
+
troublesome for people (not just programmers):
19
+
> **Representation is not data**
21
+
And this concept is confused **a lot**.
23
+
Almost any of you know that you can do `ping 1.1.1.1`, however did you know that
24
+
you can also do `ping 16843009` and the result will be the same? Magic? Not
25
+
really. What we commonly treat as an IPv4 address `1.1.1.1` is only textual
26
+
representation of the IPv4 which in reality is single 32-bit number which is
27
+
represented as dot separated 8-bit values just out of convenience. The same
28
+
applies to SHA-1 hashes, UUIDs, etc.
30
+
We people are great in finding patterns and simplifications, so when one sees
34
+
-----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----
36
+
mQINBFd1CwMBEADTJG+QszZ9JK6G+IZpvK/g8mJicqKVTV1OmI1toIml5c/5r/70
37
+
dBc1FuASTM58PPZYJoKkbIh489QIvTm+8UdYu9zNRkT33el7pW1lEe5A6sq2bvoY
38
+
GE8DioHTewdoSDPf7KIaZQeRcIY4n93rUOwA6GEtNpyYGP6ss5Y7BGk4ltSioe7N
39
+
o+4ZmWoQZwZzRon3t1eWVVP9tRMG5nLzL3XA5FK8TqoYuuIOR0Kw9+yK/CIJi6EV
40
+
NGXidQEhRX/e6cDcqmo6LQuQluuhpwKjD3rVIq5P55kDcyUXHkcr9/RBIY1GCw0m
41
+
r03H053xYhPib4S3fkcGMz1zrvgPR8M6T8VYXERZDjKzQbkkjKx2umP+MQb57N/m
42
+
Ndr+vks5PoPOPTGS9DYPaWf0fTVWQz/Wr6SuqKYWOObw2Ql1fOFS9dlQ26VHqtdP
43
+
CjCS/+kxTWP0SNIlvmICj68JNq0Elti8DNF+8K4U/zjqphqLUOMYo+bfxF3Xudlx
45
+
X5tXXRd2Jx3rkquLhlOaIfwx5ZKkc0jFvFq6L6iQ8M3w2osTTQ8wzLVrKcA/1E37
46
+
vzFw0eLlAHxqKKx8AGXhlG+bu4z9
48
+
-----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----
51
+
Then they will automatically say that this is PGP public key, however it is not!
52
+
This is only armored (textual) representation of such. We can find infinite
53
+
amount of ways to represent this in different formats that will suit our needs.
54
+
We can use binary format, we can post it as huge integer:
57
+
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+
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+
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+
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+
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+
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+
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9472757285042561083989577043290348125840395005244750850424202067248954262318073
228
+
3815815411200758900340511052777147951522351782525348580404031636340281256009099
229
+
3622685663270098759448305092624146163465790024589793366278716865415624355235291
230
+
3985878069536487297514629837101726802175517221106646456169044468305875210017956
231
+
3762872046696988950422497705388225997904571624738961093738188347083184831994615
232
+
5653340873908308859802165057177945265893576798033839250748977766722025452484918
233
+
4969906442004769360577067228954632576483279588054785969942183381969384204862823
234
+
5527295851917376805942967603231125591852023457112648669282453139677076502138626
235
+
9831545895899997311194908866099892662200438185858903893802349550297108232343975
239
+
Before you ask - yes, this is my PGP public key as a single decimal integer.
241
+
Next time you will see someone asking for "shorter UUID" you can point them
242
+
there and say - just pick shorter representation.
244
+
[so-uuid]: https://stackoverflow.com/a/2117523/1017941
hauleth.dev
