From: TP Diffenbach <rockbox_at_diffenbach.org>
Date: Wed, 14 Jan 2004 04:56:35 -0500

There are fundamentally two kinds of handler/viewers/whatever: those that
(potentially) modify the file -- these are "editors" -- and those that
cannot modify the file -- these are "viewers" or "readers".

As a user, I want to clearly be able to distinguish between actions that
might modify my data, and those that are "safe". This is especially true
with the Archos, because every file on it is a mirror of a file on my
desktop machine. While that means that I can easily revert changes, it also
means that I have to be careful to propagate changes to the pc copy, or have
those changes overwritten by sync'ing software.

(Yes, my sync'ing software can determine when the Archos copy is newer, and
copy it back or alert me to choose the version I prefer, but I like keep
things simple by making all copying one-way from PC to Archos.)

It might be nice to explicitly separate "viewers" from "editors", and
perhaps even to add a single, system-wide preference that governs whether
editors keep a an unmodified backup, or add modified files to a list of
modified files (again, yes, the sync'ing software can look for file dates or
even changed content, but that means at least fstating 8000 mp3 files). If
all editors where loaded by common code that provided write access and
maintain backups or list automatically -- and only this loader provided
pointers to writing functions -- we could do this without taxing plugin
writers at all.

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-rockbox_at_cool.haxx.se [mailto:owner-rockbox_at_cool.haxx.se]On
Behalf Of Björn Stenberg
Sent: Tuesday, January 13, 2004 10:02 AM
To: rockbox_at_cool.haxx.se
Subject: Re: Viewing Files With Plugins UPDATED


Daniel Stenberg wrote:
> Linus wants them to be 'handlers' or 'filters' but in my head those names
> don't make it any clearer. Anyone else with any preferences on the name
> issue?

I think "viewers" is good. It's a clear enough description of what should go
in that dir. "Handlers" or "filters" are not really any more informational.

Sure, we can have VBRfix or Encrypt plugins in the "viewers" directory,
which strictly aren't viewers. But I don't think we have to change the name
just because of that.

I do agree with Linus idea about calling the ON+PLAY option "Open with..."
instead of "View with..." though.

--
Björn

Received on 2004-01-14