Re: Is the sha256 object format experimental or not?

dwh@linuxprogrammer.org writes:

The hashing algorithms used to generate object names has requirements fundamentally different from that of digital signatures. I strongly suspect that that fact would change the equation when you rethink what you said above.

We can "upgrade" digital signature algorithms fairly easily---nobody would complain if you suddenly choose different signing algorithm over a blob of data, as long as all project participants are aware (and self-describing datastream helps here) and are capable of grokking the new algorithm we are adopting. But because object names are used by one object to refer to another, and most importantly, we do not want a single object to have multiple names, we cannot afford to introduce a new hashing algorithm every time we feel like it. In other words, diversity of object naming algorithms is to be avoided as much as possible, while diversity of signature algorithms is naturally expected.