Re: Sharing methods among several modules

[Magnus Bergman <magnus bergman observer net>]

On Mon, 29 Aug 2005 09:46:27 +0200
Alexander Larsson <alexl redhat com> wrote:

> On Fri, 2005-08-26 at 16:46 +0200, Magnus Bergman wrote:
> > There has for a long time been a confusion between the protocol
> > prefix of an URI and volume labels (as in AmigaOS and NetWare). For
> > example GnomeVFS uses the URI computer:/// to access the virtual
> > "computer directory". The idea (I assume) is that it should appear
> > as a volume label called "computer:", but the URI of such a label
> > should really be file://computer|/ (or is it file:///computer: ?).
> > 
> > The problem here is a limitation in GnomeVFS which only allows one
> > module to handle each method. Thus each new module needs to
> > allocate a new method (fake protocol). I decided to fix this by
> > making a module which can "mount" other modules in the same tree,
> > or make them appear as volume labels. The idea is to have this
> > module handle the file-method and mount the file-module as root,
> > and then have the possibility to mount other modules (such as the
> > computer-module) at other places in that tree. Is this a reasonable
> > approach, would it even be suitable for inclusion in GnomeVFS?
> 
> I don't understand at all why you would ever want something like this.

The main reason is that I think it's wrong to invent a "fake protocol"
for each new module (I'm not just talking about the included modules
but every potential module also). It was a lot worse in older versions
of GnomeVFS, but there still is a confusion between protocol prefixes
(like HTTP://) and volume labels (like themes: or something). I want to
fight this confusion. Every module that doesn't really implement a
protocol should be accessed through the FILE:// method, I think. And
either "mounted" in a virtual file system or assigned a volume label
(my module supports both) that works the same way as on systems which
has volume labels. I assume it would be done like this already if
GnomeVFS had support for it.

Even thou my module wont really allow GnomeVFS to do something
completely new, it just adds the possibility to do some things the
right way.

In a default installation we now get:

computer:///
fonts:///
themes:///

This is bad if you ask me, especially if even more modules are added. (I
have made a couple of custom ones and I guess I'm not the only one). I
don't have a strong opinion about exactly how this should be done the
right way. But for example it could be arranged like this:

file:///computer/
file:///computer/fonts/
file:///computer/themes/

Or perhaps like this:

file://computer:/
file://computer:/fonts/
file://computer:/themes/