[ID3 Dev] Why is footer not included in total size?

[Ray Manning]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jim [mailto:jmartin92 at comcast.net]
> Sent: Tuesday, November 14, 2006 10:09 AM
> To: id3v2 at id3.org
> Subject: Re: [ID3 Dev] Why is footer not included in total size?
>
>
> Some ID3v1 tag information can be found here:
> http://www.id3.org/id3v1.html

Thanks, I missed that link.

>
<snip>
>
> And I still think that the footer flag is useful.  Sure you can check the
> last 10 bytes of the tag data to see if it is a footer, but isn't
> it easier
> to check one flag bit instead of comparing 10 bytes for the header/footer
> format?  (This method may not confirm that the footer is valid as written,
> but it does tell you to expect it to be there.)  If I'm parsing a tag that
> contains a footer, I can just subtract 10 bytes from the expected size of
> the tag data/padding and deal with the footer later, if I need to.  (If it
> is a prepended tag and I do not change the overall size of the tag or the
> flag byte, I can skip over dealing with the footer entirely.)
>



I agree the flag is useful as the spec is written today, but it is not
necessary
if the spec had made the tag size include the footer size.

If you're parsing a prepended tag that contains a footer, you can ignore
the footer all together unless you are going to resize the tag or modifiy
the header flags. I'm assuming here that the tag size would include the
footer
size. Since the tag size doesn't include the footer size, then the bit is
needed in order to determine where the end of the tag is.

If you were parsing an appended tag, then you already know about the footer
so the flag won't be used.

I think we are in agreement, just confusing reality and the topic.

- Ray


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