Re: Help test EFS

Ben> mike, are there any plans to support URL-style syntax for Ben> EFS? The last time this was suggested, Stallman trashed it, because it would make it too easy to implement ssh: and scp: protocols etc transparently, and at that time they were too unfree to be allowed to work and play pleasantly with Emacs. :-( I don't know if there would still be resistence from the GNU camp, but there was. Be that as it may.... Mike, check me on this, but I think this is a _bad_ idea. The reason is that EFS installs itself on the file I/O handler hooks and thus transparently emulates local file operation semantics for remote files. All of the problems that we currently have with EFS will seem tiny if this is implemented, because EFS will not have 15 years of error- handling expertise embedded in the code for handling non-FTP protocols. Embedding the capability in EFS is just asking for scads of bug reports. I think it would be preferable to create a new package for doing this. We just don't want to muck with EFS at the moment. It's too critical and too stable. BTW, I have a design and half an implementation for alternative transports for package-get. Alternative transports will use URL syntax, and the EFS transport will also use URL syntax by preference (of course that will be converted to EFS's /user＠remotehost:/path syntax internally). Besides EFS, I will implement a sample transport based on url-retrieve from w3. I may do another one based on Kai Grossjohan's tramp, too (but that would just be proof of concept, since typical users won't have ssh access to tux). I think that's a better way to go for the general case too. Mike? BTW, as long as you're here ... given an arbitrary function called by existing package-get code, is there an easy way to check whether it is EFS-infested and needs to be wrapped to use "alternative transports"? -- University of Tsukuba Tennodai 1-1-1 Tsukuba 305-8573 JAPAN Institute of Policy and Planning Sciences Tel/fax: +81 (298) 53-5091 _________________ _________________ _________________ _________________ What are those straight lines for? "XEmacs rules."