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List:       kde
Subject:    RE: User Definable Protocols?
From:       "Timothy R. Butler" <kde () uninetsolutions ! com>
Date:       2000-06-05 3:26:34
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Evan,
  I'm not a C/C++ programmer, so I couldn't implement it either (I'm a Perl
programmer), but I have to say your suggestions really excited me. They
sound great! Couldn't the device "protocols" be aliased over their /dev/???
counterpart, and with a little work get it to work?
  It seems this would be the start for integrating KPrinterQueue (isn't that
the name of it?) into KFM (or what ever it's called in KDE 2.0). More
thoughts:

  palm:// (let's you browse current apps, calendar, etc. on Palm Computers)
  settings:// (integrate KControl Panel apps into KFM)
  audio:// (integrated audio player - drop items on folder to create
playlist)
  whiteboard:// (whiteboard app that integrates with what every K-aware IM
app you are using)
  cdr:// (drop data here to burn onto CD-R/CD-RW drive)


 Hey mosfet, being a KDE developer, what do you think?

  -Tim

-----------------------------------------------------------------
Timothy R. Butler                              Universal Networks
Information Tech. Consultant    Christian Web Services Since 1996
ICQ #12495932 AIM: Uninettm       An Authorized IPSwitch Reseller
tbutler@uninetsolutions.com        http://www.uninetsolutions.com
===================== "Solutions that Work" =====================



> -----Original Message-----
> From: kde-request@lists.netcentral.net
> [mailto:kde-request@lists.netcentral.net]On Behalf Of Evan E.
> Sent: Sunday, June 04, 2000 4:04 PM
> To: KDE general mailing list
> Subject: User Definable Protocols?
>
>
>
>    ( This deals with KDE2, and is strictly an idea that I don't have the
> time to implement myself.  It is only an idea.  There is no
> reason to demand
> that I do it just because I thunked it.  It may even be done already. )
>
>    I was just reading Slashdot, and came across the following post
> (excerpted):
>
> Well, yeah, but underneath KDE is still the "what the f-ck is that?"
> filesystem we endearingly call ext2. Try explaining to a user
> some time why
> saving a file to /tmp is a Bad Idea. Or where their home
> directory is ("Why
> can't I save it to C:\.. er.. / ? It worked fine under windows!"). An
> interface is not the mere sum of its components...
>
>    It occured to me that kio has plenty of protocols that it
> deals with: for
> instance, http, file, ftp, smb.  To the user these all take the form of
> file://whatever.
>
>    Can users come back and plug in additional functionality?  My first
> thought ran to defining "c" as being your home directory, so people
> migrating from windows could save to their c://my documents/
> location (with
> a bit of tweaking, possibly even c:\my documents\).  Having had
> to deal with
> belligerent office workers (sales and attorneys are the worst), the
> flexability to appease this issue would gratify people who don't
> understand
> folders in windows, and can't figure out the network drive (always asking
> their secretary to load a shared file).  Real world issues.
>
>    Then I started thinking about what *I* would like.  I would love home:
> and desktop: (or dt:) defined for my own use to jump to in the
> file system.
> I would love tim: and ritz: to jump to ftp sessions on my servers.  These
> are personal tweaks that I would love to edit in a configuration file.
> Maybe a pub: that jumps to a shared ftp or nfs directory.
>
>    Then the really good ideas started coming:  How about a loadable module
> so that when you plug in your digital camera, you can go to casio:// (or
> camera://) and browse the images there?  scanner:// provides a
> pseudo image
> file that when you load it, scans the current document loaded in the
> scanner.  cam:// has an image file and video file... open either for your
> attached web cam to feed data any application.  Heck... the speakerphone
> modem cards could use phone://561-555-3782 to connect to someone, your
> tvtuner could use tv://5 or tv://wxel or tv://showtime to view your images
> (this is defined in rfc 2838 in a slightly different format.  Modification
> for local channels on a tv card might be necessary.
> http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2838.txt ).
>
>    Since Konqueror already supports viewing file types, this would be the
> flip side to provide easy access to all devices.  A network
> protocol to this
> would also be easy, since you are providing a pseudo file system
> anyway.  If
> you don't have a TV card in that particular computer, but you do
> have a nice
> 100 switched network, just hit tv://myothersystem/showtime/video.mpeg (or
> tv://myothersystem/showtime/framegrab.jpeg).  You'll get a mpeg
> stream that
> encodes on one end, and transparantly passes across the network into your
> system.  For network scanners and such this would be a great way
> of working.
> If you want to password protect the device, you can: stage a
> popup a la http
> authorization or bookmark the tv://user@myothersystem/showtime format. (I
> forget the format for the password in the URL).
>
>    I can even see an early gleam of an idea for printer:// and
> other output
> devices... drag and drop files in formats that can be rendered (via
> Konqueror plug-ins?) on that device.  Or save files to "printer:".  Again,
> printer://frontoffice/ would be your network printer (or
> printer:frontoffice).
>
>    kio is a powerful feature in its current form.  This is one of
> the things
> that makes me use KDE.  My generous thanks and heartfelt gratitude goes to
> the people who have coded it this far... here's some daydreaming and food
> for thought for where it might go next... if you haven't already gotten
> there. :)
>
> Summary/goals: The concept is abstraction via loadable modules (or config
> files) to devices or locations via a URL.  Network transparancy has a
> convenient and easily understood metaphor, and the whole is
> compatable with
> current conventions.  Read only, write only and R/W devices with
> any set of
> limitations can be addressed by *any* application by translation
> to a common
> file format that makes sense to that device.
>
> --
> Evan
>
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