On Thu, Aug 10, 2000 at 07:18:44PM -0500, Will Dye wrote: > > > Regarding config settings, I wrote: > > >> - Windows prefers that such things go into the Registry, but that > >> not be appropriate to use as a default in the case of Freenet. > > > In response, Zem asked: > > > Can you suggest a reason it wouldn't be appropriate? > > > I can think of two offhand: > > 1) Support. Each difference between the UNIX and MS versions is a > potential cross-platform bug. Such bugs are of particular concern when > your staff is small, unpaid, and mostly trained in UNIX. IMO, Registry > entries are harder to browse than a single text file, and more prone to > getting corrupted (if only becuase so many other programs edit it). All > these problems can be addressed, of course, but it becomes a question of > risk/cost versus benefit. The only benefit I can see is that we'd be > more "Windows-y". The costs include responding to bug reports with > things like "Are you running Windows? What are your Registry settings? > See the Windows FAQ for instructions on how to look at and modify your > Registry settings". If all platforms have the same config files in > pretty much the same place, it's one less thing that could go wrong, one > less question to ask, and one less variant for the regression testing > scripts to address.
IMHO, we shouldn't use the registry. Most Windoze users will not know how to use it (while most Unix/Linux users are clueful enough to know how to edit most configuration files). Many Windoze users probably don't know of the registry's existance. Requiring the average (l)user to use the registry will impede upon Freenet's acceptance. > 2) Stealth. Freenet is more likely than the average program to be run > "underground", in the sense that the user may want to leave few clues > that the program has been installed, be able to uninstall it in a big > fat hurry, and be able to verify in a simple way that the uninstall was > complete. Putting everything related to Freenet in one big honkin' > directory will be helpful in that circumstance. Actually, there are techniques to get *very deleted* (as in overwrited thousands of times) data off a disk using scanning electron microscopes. Simply deleting files won't help you (you essentially have to melt down or blow up your hard drive to be safe). -- Travis Bemann Sendmail is still screwed up on my box. My email address is really bemann at execpc.com. -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: application/pgp-signature Size: 2218 bytes Desc: not available URL: <https://emu.freenetproject.org/pipermail/devl/attachments/20000810/32a17e97/attachment.pgp>
