[Zope-dev] FTP interface being worked on?

[Steve Spicklemire]

Hi Fred,

>>>>> "Fred" == Fred Wilson Horch <fhorch@ecoaccess.org> writes:

    Fred> Wanted to follow up on Steve's points.

    Fred> I don't know if we need just one serialization interface
    Fred> that tries to solve all five issues.

Ok.. 

    Fred> We currently have two serialization interfaces in Zope:

    Fred>  1) the FTP interface, and 2) the XML export interface.

    Fred> Seems to me that the FTP interface could be generalized as
    Fred> the "lossy" serialization interface that is "morally human
    Fred> readable" and the XML export interface could be tweaked a
    Fred> bit as "lossless" but "morally binary".

    Fred> The FTP interface would be used when you want a
    Fred> representation that can be edited by hand.  It solves C, D
    Fred> and E, but not A and B.

    Fred> The XML interface would be used when you want a
    Fred> representation that can be manipulated programmatically.  It
    Fred> solves A and B, but not C, D and E.

Hmm.. maybe I'm misuderstanding... which would/could you use for
version control? It still seems to me that a blend of these could be
developed that would work in all cases. An object could have a human
readable part/aspect and 'the rest' could be captured as an xml
bloblet. The 'human editable' part could just be what you get on the
FTP interface (as you say), and the rest could be saved/restored to a
'auxiliary' file that would track other aspects of the object.  Since
objects could implement their own serialization, they could decide
what aspects belonged in which part.  Otherwise I can't help feeling
that we'd have problems with duplicated versions, some xml/zexp, some
human-readable that would inevitably stomp on eachother in any version
control scenario. If all this could be worked in to the existing
FTP/export/import system... there would be a minimum impact on 
existing interfaces.

    Fred> FWIW, I'm working on tweaking the XML export/import code to
    Fred> serialize object hierarchies as directories and files,
    Fred> rather than exporting a single file.

Cool.. this sounds like a promising approach. I'd be interested
in testing this.. 

thanks!
-steve

    Fred> Fred

    Fred> P.S.  The link Karl sent
    Fred> (http://www.thetwowayweb.com/theXmlFiles) is interesting.
    Fred> -- Fred Wilson Horch mailto:fhorch@ecoaccess.org Executive
    Fred> Director, EcoAccess http://ecoaccess.org/ P.O. Box 2823,
    Fred> Durham, NC 27715-2823 phone: 919.419-8354