Re: [Monotone-devel] url schemes

[Philipp Gröschler]

Markus Schiltknecht schrieb:
> That would be fine, if all servers were clever ones. But there are 
> pretty dumb ones out, and I'd like to support them as well. Preferably 
> with the same syntax. Parsing on the client side is not a problem: we
> have that under our control. As well as the clever servers.

Then just allow a new Monotone user, as what I am, a question:

Which are those dumb servers? Following the mailing list, I thought the 
main talk on this thread is about how a new 'destination address and 
everything else syntax' for the sync command on the command line could 
look like. Or on protocol level, different mtn processes talking to each 
other. What have I missed?

> I disagree, but I guess that's a matter of taste. I just happen to like 
> RESTful APIs (which are not just about the syntax of the URL, but 
> involve usage of GET/PUT/DELETE http commands).

Seems to be a different point of view. I am looking at the command line. 
You seem to be looking at protocol level. Sorry for not making that clear.

> I'm arguing that most users don't care, where exactly code is involved. 
> Heck, code is involved everywhere, it's just a matter of "what does the 
> code do".

That was just an example, let me express that differently. A URL which 
looks like

  http://www.xyz.org/branch/net.venge.monotone

doesn't let me know which part of it carries the command or call and 
which part carries the argument for this command. On second view, one 
might discern this, but it misses a clear and intuitive separator. That 
might be personal taste, and also might set off problems with dumb 
servers. Again, different league. Look at my first question above.

> Most users just recognize things which look like a URLs, so they expect 
> to be able to type it into their browser.

Things which look like an URL should also work like one. In the last few 
days I've seen lots of examples on the list which wouldn't work like one 
would expect. Again I use the word intuitive, because I like software 
which I can use without reading all its documentation. Just like "this 
one uses URLs, there are this few parameters, let's roll".

Possibly I am in the wrong thread now (should have answered on "sync 
mtn://" again) and possibly we are at cross purposes. Sorry for 
interrupting, but you where asking for thoughts.