comments ? file browsing protocol name

[Mark Ellis]

Hi Guys

It's been a while since I threw out a "what do you think" question :)

As you all undoubtedly know, our two GUI file browsing plugins,
gvfs/gnomevfs and kio, use different protocol names, synce: and rapip:
respectively.

While not terrible, this is not the best thing for compatibility. I see
these options

1) Leave it and don't worry about it

2) Decide on one and change the other. I believe it is entirely possible
with either that we could have another 'legacy' type for a deprecation
period.

3) Pick another name and apply it to both. The legacy type from (2)
could then apply to both as well.

Personally I prefer synce: over rapip:, but would be averse to something
like rapi:, pocketpc:, or wince: ?

Any thoughts ?

Mark

[David Eriksson]

Post by Mark Ellis
Hi Guys
It's been a while since I threw out a "what do you think" question :)
As you all undoubtedly know, our two GUI file browsing plugins,
respectively.
While not terrible, this is not the best thing for compatibility. I see
these options
1) Leave it and don't worry about it
2) Decide on one and change the other. I believe it is entirely possible
with either that we could have another 'legacy' type for a deprecation
period.
3) Pick another name and apply it to both. The legacy type from (2)
could then apply to both as well.
Personally I prefer synce: over rapip:, but would be averse to something
like rapi:, pocketpc:, or wince: ?

I'd vote for "synce:"

RAPI is a protocol; Windows CE, Pocket PC, Windows Mobile, etc are brands;
such things change... but this project remains.

Cheers,

\David

http://www.divideandconquer.se/

[Adam Williamson]

Post by David Eriksson
RAPI is a protocol; Windows CE, Pocket PC, Windows Mobile, etc are brands;
such things change... but this project remains.

...until we all get bored and it gets replaced with something else, or
we change the name for some reason, or someone forks it and wins...

:P

[Mark Ellis]

Post by Adam Williamson

Post by David Eriksson
RAPI is a protocol; Windows CE, Pocket PC, Windows Mobile, etc are brands;
such things change... but this project remains.

...until we all get bored and it gets replaced with something else, or
we change the name for some reason, or someone forks it and wins...
:P
--
adamw

:) I can tell from this that David is in an optimistic mood and Adam is
not having the best of days :)

I agree with David that a derivative of a brand isn't a good idea.

A quick look around for precedents gives us arguments both ways, eg with
gvfs we have gphoto using, you guessed it, gphoto:, while the guys
working on ipod stuff seem to be going for afc: (Apple File Control),
which I guess leans towards using rapi:, but not quite the same thing.

As to it getting replaced or forked, since what we're dealing with isn't
an 'official' protocol like http, I don't think it's something we can
hope to control. Get bored ! Shame on you ..... :)

So as a concept, sounds like something we want to do yes ? I get the
general impression our user numbers are going up, so it's probably
better to do sooner rather than later, confuse less people that way.

Mark

[Adam Williamson]

Post by Mark Ellis
:) I can tell from this that David is in an optimistic mood and Adam is
not having the best of days :)

My day is fine, I'm just taking a maintainer perspective on this. Also,
a maintainer with a long memory who works on things that have been
around for a long time. Lots of them are forks, or were forked, or
really probably should have been forked, or changed names, or...=)

I don't think there's really a perfect answer to the question, though.
So from a practical point of view, synce:// is probably as good as any
other choice. It's about as likely that Microsoft will come up with
ANOTHER completely new name for the OS or the protocol as it is that the
name synce will eventually not be valid for some reason, so there's no
really safe choice that I can think of.

[Mark Ellis]

Post by Adam Williamson

Post by Mark Ellis
:) I can tell from this that David is in an optimistic mood and Adam is
not having the best of days :)

My day is fine, I'm just taking a maintainer perspective on this. Also,
a maintainer with a long memory who works on things that have been
around for a long time. Lots of them are forks, or were forked, or
really probably should have been forked, or changed names, or...=)
I don't think there's really a perfect answer to the question, though.
So from a practical point of view, synce:// is probably as good as any
other choice. It's about as likely that Microsoft will come up with
ANOTHER completely new name for the OS or the protocol as it is that the
name synce will eventually not be valid for some reason, so there's no
really safe choice that I can think of.
--
adamw

Ok, well no one has said "that's a terrible idea", so I'll take that as
a good thing.

As to what we use, I don't like rapip, because it isn't quite anything.
The best options therefore seem to be rapi or synce. I'm leaning more
towards synce, mostly because it is only a 50% change, but I'll mull it
over for a bit.

Ta
Mark

[Dr J A Gow]

Post by Mark Ellis
As to what we use, I don't like rapip, because it isn't quite anything.
The best options therefore seem to be rapi or synce. I'm leaning more
towards synce, mostly because it is only a 50% change, but I'll mull it
over for a bit.

Just to add my 2p worth - I vote for 'synce'. Just in case synce ever
supports mobile devices that use a different protocol on the wire to
rapi (as an aside, I wonder if we could support Blackberry devices - I
don't have one to test and play about with but I'll wager they don't use
rapi!).

John.

[Adam Williamson]

Post by Dr J A Gow
Just to add my 2p worth - I vote for 'synce'. Just in case synce ever
supports mobile devices that use a different protocol on the wire to
rapi (as an aside, I wonder if we could support Blackberry devices - I
don't have one to test and play about with but I'll wager they don't use
rapi!).

The Barry project already handles Blackberries very well, and no, they
don't use rapi :)

[Dave Williams]

I'm kinda thinking that rapi or rapip would be best because it is the
protocol name and things like samba use smb:/ so in some ways there is a
global convention already set.

-----Original Message-----
From: Mark Ellis [mailto:***@mpellis.org.uk]
Sent: 04 December 2008 16:52
To: synce-***@lists.sourceforge.net
Subject: comments ? file browsing protocol name

Hi Guys

It's been a while since I threw out a "what do you think" question :)

As you all undoubtedly know, our two GUI file browsing plugins,
gvfs/gnomevfs and kio, use different protocol names, synce: and rapip:
respectively.

While not terrible, this is not the best thing for compatibility. I see
these options

1) Leave it and don't worry about it

2) Decide on one and change the other. I believe it is entirely possible
with either that we could have another 'legacy' type for a deprecation
period.

3) Pick another name and apply it to both. The legacy type from (2)
could then apply to both as well.

Personally I prefer synce: over rapip:, but would be averse to something
like rapi:, pocketpc:, or wince: ?

Any thoughts ?

Mark