[physfs] PhysicsFS 2.1 roadmap...

[Lele Gaifax]

Hi all,

I'm a new subscriber, and found this library only a few days ago, but
it seem an useful tool for a couple of applications I'm going to
develop.

As these apps will be written in Python, I wrote a preliminary version
of the binding in Cython_ that is working great, but the whole concept
would require some "helpers" from the inside, that is some changes in
the core of the library. I already sent the code to Ryan, and
hopefully we can arrange its inclusion in the main development tree.

I'd like to graft a few considerations to your roadmap, with this in
mind, where I think I can offer some help.

> - Abstract out the file i/o, and let applications supply 
> implementations. This will allow apps to do things where they control 
> the i/o at the byte level: archives in a memory buffer, archives in 
> archives, encrypted archives, etc.
> - Archives formats provided by the implementation.

This is the main missing feature: being able to install an
application/external provided "archiver". One goal is to enable
PhysicsFS to handle things like the TahoeFS_, another kind would be
exposing some internals of an application thru a custom FS ala Linux's
/proc filesystem.

> - Replace the existing error strings with something more 
> flexible...right now, you have to pick a translation at compile time, 
> which isn't too useful. It might be nice to have real error codes for 
> apps instead of just error messages for humans, too.

Yeah, I see. What about using the gettext machinery when available?

> I'm taking requests from the peanut gallery: if you want to see 
> something added/removed/changed in PhysicsFS, please speak up now, as 
> the development branch can change the API in any way that makes sense.

Thank you but... what's the "peanut gallery"?

ciao, lele.

.. _cython: http://cython.org/
.. _tahoefs: http://allmydata.org/source/tahoe/trunk/docs/about.html
-- 
nickname: Lele Gaifax    | Quando vivrò di quello che ho pensato ieri
real: Emanuele Gaifas    | comincerò ad aver paura di chi mi copia.
lele at nautilus.homeip.net |                 -- Fortunato Depero, 1929.