Re: [Evolution] Issue with formatting of gconf files.

[Patrick O'Callaghan <poc usb ve>]

On Sun, 2011-02-06 at 15:48 -0800, les wrote:
> On Thu, 2011-02-03 at 22:02 -0430, Patrick O'Callaghan wrote:
> > On Thu, 2011-02-03 at 15:04 -0800, les wrote:
> > > With that said, here is a snippet from the gconf stuff for evolution:
> > >
> > > Directly from the file:
> > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > > <?xml version="1.0"?>
> > > <group uid="1162801071 10728 17 localhost localdomain" name="On This
> > > Computer" base_uri="local:" readonly="no"><source
> > > uid="1162801071 10728 18 localhost localdomain" name="Personal"
> > > uri="file:///home/lesh/.evolution/addressbook/local/system"
> > > relative_uri="system"><properties><property name="pilot-sync"
> > > value="true"/><property name="use-in-contacts-calendar"
> > > value="0"/></properties></source><source
> > > uid="1163129951 18548 0 localhost localdomain" name="Personal2"
> > > relative_uri="1163129951 18548 0 localhost localdomain"><properties><property name="completion" 
> > > value="true"/><property name="remember_password" value="false"/></properties></source></group>
> > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > >
> > > How many of you can read and understand this bit of code?
> > >
> > > I especially dislike the ########## ##### # localhost localdomain
> > > filename.  This has no significance to the job being accomplished.  As
> > > much as I rail against "self documenting code", this is just beyond
> > > useless.  It smacks of trying to use obfuscation for security, which
> > > has
> > > been proven over and over to not aid security.  Other than that it has
> > > no value, no significance and adds no real value to the process being
> > > described.
> >
> > Two points here:
> >
> > 1) You seem to think that because this is in text form, it's supposed to
> > be read by humans. AFAIK it's not. The format is XML as a convenience to
> > make it portable and easy to parse by machine. The visual layout is
> > irrelevant (and can be generated by a pretty-printer if it's ever
> > needed).
> >
> > 2) The ########## ##### # localhost localdomain stuff is not meant for
> > obfuscated "security", but as a way of generating a unique ID (not a
> > filename as you state). You don't say where this snippet comes from so
> > it's hard to say, but it looks very similar to the Message-ID header
> > found in mail messages.
> >
> > poc
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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>
> But unfortunately poc, machines do occasionally screw up, as has
> happened with my address book, which is where this code snippet came
> from, and then some human has to clean it up, analyze the failure, fix
> the problem, confirm that it works, possibly beta test it, get approval
> from the team (should one exist) that the code does its correct
> operation, and be maintained into the future.  Poor practices, whether
> machine readable or human readable are still poor practices.  If the
> person responsible were working for me, I have lots of similar examples
> I could let him expend his energy on until he or she realized the
> problem that this presents.
>
> I do hope that you are putting me on.

I note that you avoid addressing either of the points I raised in my
reply, so frankly I don't think this is going anywhere. I've been using
and programming Unix and Linux since 1975, so I think I recognize when
someone is trying to change the subject.

poc