> At 04:20 AM 11/16/2002 +0000, Robert O'Connor wrote:
> <snip>
> > > 3. Creator (if needed) - given a channel name, convert that into the
> > > appropriate format (e.g. .plkrdata file). This could be as simple as
> > > grabbing the relevant fields from the relevant channel section of the INI
> > > file or it could require packaging of that up to a different format.
> >
> >Probably not needed. Best just to use a single .ini format (less headaches).
>
> You could have convinced me, if not for you adding the bitmap icon several
> paragraphs down. How do you figure Joe-User is going to plug a bitmap into
> an INI file? <grin>
I don't see much difficult about it. It is either a b64 encoding of the image
or just a PNM-format to have an image of 1 and 0 characters of the pixels. In
the part that you snipped, I said that the .ini could be generate
d from the Desktop export. There is already a widget to specify a custom large
or small icon filename. The Desktop would just zip up the file into b64, or put
it inline, PNM-style. I don't see how a casual computer use wo
uld have any problems with it.
> >(2) User clicks on link, and browser knows to do something with that
> >plkrdata file, to launch
> >the one-click utility include with an argument of the . .plkrdata file.
> >(Is the part that is
> >likely the most source of headache, dealing with the different possible
> >browsers to have them
> >set up right).
>
> Don't most pass the file to the OS if they don't know how to handle it
> themselves? Popping the type in the registry for Windows and the
> /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc/register for Linux should handle this for most
> installations, no?
I don't know how all browsers do it. Sorry.
> >(3) The one-click utililty reads the lines of the .plkrdata file and
> >transfers them to the
> >plucker.ini. They should probably be sanity checked for at least being
> >proper config format, so
> >can't bring down the entire parser by a bad file. If using a wxWindows
> >C++, this could be
> >accomplished by a wxFileConig Read() and Write() to read into the
> >.plkrdata file, but then set
> >active config to plucker.ini and Write() it there. wxConfig would cough on
> >the way in, so it
> >wouldn't possibly write illegally formatted stuff to plucker.ini.
>
> I'm a bit leery of dragging in something as big and convoluted as wxWindows
> solely for ini file processing. The source file (.plkrdata) will have a
> handful of required fields that can be loaded using a simple
> GetProfileDataString() or equivalent; if they're missing, spit out an error
> rather than corrupting Plucker.INI. But I agree that sanity checks are
> essential.
Actually big and convoluted is what will happen when writing something to work
cross-platform, and have it work properly on the platforms. wx has already
wrapped the functions that are need. I think the whole app could be written in
about 40 lines of code, because there are already cross-platform classes for
everything needed.
> >(3.5) Wesley had suggested to include the large and small icons, which I
> >think is a good idea.
> >These would be b64 encoded into the .plkrdata textfile. The timing of when
> >to unzip the b64 and
> >dump the icons into files ready for the parser is up in the air (do it on
> >addition of a new
> >channel from showcase/.plkrdata, or as part of process before starting a
> >channel, or put into
> >the parser to handle an icon as a text rendition (similar to how the
> >default icon is in the
> >sourcecode in Python)?
>
> This is a new one to me. I hadn't even noticed the icon feature until just
> now, looking through the docs to figure out what you were talking
> about. The help says that icons must be monochrome; is that still
> true? Anyhow, popping in the icons requires a bit more data than a
> standard text INI can handle... need an encoder. Not a problem, but does
> reinforce the need for a creation function.
The help is correct. The icons must be monochrome. It is a Palm requirement for
the .pdb format.
The icons can go into a standard .ini. b64 or PNM or other. I don't think the 1-
click tool should have to worry about this or any other setting really though,
it just be flexible enough to copy links. The only required sanity check is
that it is a legal .ini file. The rest doesn't matter. If someone wants to hand-
generate a goofy .ini file with bpp=7, or bpp=m, then it should only just stop
that channel from working. However with an illegal .ini section such as an open
ended [ in the title, adding that to the plucker.ini will break the entire
plucker.ini from reading anything.
> >(4) If wxWindows C++, can _possibly_ do a quick IPC (Interprocess
> >Communication) using the
> >wxIPC class (which wraps the native OS's standard IPC mechanism) and if
> >Plucker Desktop is
> >running, then send a message to Plucker Desktop to reload the main frame's
> >list of My Plucker
> > > If so, what subset of INI data should be used and what file format if not
> > > the INI format?
> >
> >Support 'em all! ;-)
> >Might as well give the flexability. It is tough when parts of toolchains
> >drop things.
>
> All? User? Image_parser? Some of these are best not set by a central unit.
It is more flexible and easier to maintain if it brings in all of the keys of
the section in the ini file. Otherwise, when parser gets a new key, would have
to then go and recompile the 1-click tool to add the new key. The generator of
the .ini should be responsibe (and customizable) of what keys to put into the
section.
> I'll roll it around a bit more to get a better idea of a good shape. As
> you can tell, despite having gone deep in to wxWindows to fix those issues
> confounding Desktop, I'm not a fan of it. But I would like the resulting
> tool to work well with Desktop.
The best solution requires IPC between the processes of the 1-click utility and
a Desktop if running. The IPC mechanism is difficult between OS's as Windows
has their own mechanism, and Linux uses a TCP/IP. It is a lot of work to fork
and write/maintain an implementation for each, it is much easier just to use wx
to write a few lines and have it work natively on both.
Best wishes,
Robert
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