Mailing-List: contact cygwin-help AT cygwin DOT com; run by ezmlm List-Subscribe: List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: , Sender: cygwin-owner AT cygwin DOT com Mail-Followup-To: cygwin AT cygwin DOT com Delivered-To: mailing list cygwin AT cygwin DOT com Date: Wed, 8 May 2002 09:41:30 -0400 From: Christopher Faylor To: cygwin AT cygwin DOT com Subject: Re: A proposal for a Cygnus naming convention Message-ID: <20020508134130.GA32078@redhat.com> Reply-To: cygwin AT cygwin DOT com Mail-Followup-To: cygwin AT cygwin DOT com References: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: User-Agent: Mutt/1.3.23.1i On Wed, May 08, 2002 at 08:38:32AM +0200, Mellman Thomas wrote: >>>-----Original Message----- >>>From: Christopher Faylor [mailto:cgf-cygwin AT cygwin DOT com] >>>Sent: Tuesday, May 07, 2002 5:19 PM >>>To: cygwin AT cygwin DOT com >>>Subject: Re: A proposal for a Cygnus naming convention >>> >>> >>>On Tue, May 07, 2002 at 09:32:00AM +0200, Mellman Thomas wrote: >>>>Given the registry name: >>>> >>>> >>>>HKLM\software\Cygnus solutions\cygwin\mounts v2\/ >>>> >>>> >>>>May I suggest that the blank in the name is superfluous and problematic >>>>for processing by Unix-type tools - even in the registry. Bill may >>>>feel vindicated that *his* OS tolerates blanks, but does it really add >>>>significant readibility? >>> >>>You can suggest anything, however, what you are suggesting >>>makes no sense: >>> >>>1) The cygwin registry entry is not intended to be manipulated by >>> "Unix-type tools". Use *mount* if you want to manipulate it. >>> >>>2) Changing the name would break backwards compatibility. >>> >>>3) Even if you wanted to use "Unix-type" tools, a space is really not an >>> obstacle. Unix certainly can deal with spaces. >>> >>>So, bottom line is that there is absolutely no way that we'll be >>>changing anything. You should just be considering the registry to be a >>>black box, anyway. The cygwin DLL deals just fine with the current >>>scheme. > >I didn't mean to say that anything needs to be changed. I hope you have mirrors so that you can see behind yourself while you're backpeddling. If you weren't proposing that anything should be changed, then why did you even bother sending your message? >It was only a suggestion for the future. Oh. So, you *were* proposing that something should be changed. If I somehow gave you the impression that anything you sent would be taken as a high priority task, then I apologize. I'm not sure how I gave you the impression that I would take anything as you said as other than a suggestion. >But to suggest that the registry is a black box is simply gates-ian. >That's a big advantage of unix: it doesn't try to hide things from the >users. Hopefully, cygwin developers aren't so close that they're >seduced by the dark side. And, here we avoid addressing the issues and go off on a tangent. I'd have a lot easier time with your points if you weren't insistent on being insulting. Smugly mentioning "Bill", suggesting dark sides, and calling things "gatesian" probably provides you with some kind of nebulous feeling of superiority however, it really doesn't do much to advance your suggestion. Lets focus back on my response to your suggestion. How would you propose maintaining backwards compatibility? Are you suggesting that we should eliminate spaces in the registry names and cause older versions of cygwin to be incapable of reading registry entries created by newer versions? And, the rationale for doing this is purely aesthetic? If so, were you going to be around after your "suggestion for the future" was implemented to handle the inevitable mailing list complaints? You also haven't suggested a good reason for ignoring the use of perfectly functional mount command and the mount function. I suspect (although I'm sure you will do some more backpeddling denials here) that you probably didn't know that the mount command manipulated the registry and that you're probably equally unaware that there (obviously) are functions available for doing things programatically. You haven't even provided a good basis for making this fundamental change other than "spaces bad -- Microsoft use spaces!". The concept that space present a challenge to "Unix-type tools" is really rather laughable. In absence of details on what your problems are, the only conclusion that I can draw is that you are probably rather unskilled in the use of said tools. cgf -- Unsubscribe info: http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple Bug reporting: http://cygwin.com/bugs.html Documentation: http://cygwin.com/docs.html FAQ: http://cygwin.com/faq/