Re: [Fgs-bs] Welcome and feature list

[Desired Username]

--- tps12 <address@hidden> wrote:
> Desired Username wrote:
> > I'm not really sure what you mean by "keyed by
> login
> > name" or "stored as filenames".  I know there's a
> > username.data file or whatever that stores a
> user's
> > data.  That should stay as-is, because it's nice
> and
> > easy to find and modify a user from the CL. 
> > Internally, I saw the users in a big array.  If
> that
> > array is always in the same order, the UID is the
> > array position, right?
> 
> If I'd know you were going to reply to the list, I
> would have explained 
> why I think UIDs would be better.

I changed the mailing list default so this should work
now.  Can you get in to the mailing list admin
interface?

> 1. Using usernames for file names is convenient, but
> it limits legal 
> usernames to legal filenames. Currently, usernames
> are limited to 
> alphanumeric characters, and the main impediment to
> loosening the 
> requirement is that it's hard for the server to know
> which special 
> characters are illegal and what the maximum filename
> length is on the 
> filesystem.

Oh, good point.  In fact, I bet it limits people to
ASCII usernames, so they can't have one in their own
language.  Hmm, maybe that's a good idea anyway, else
how can English speaking people differentiate between
boxboxboxbox and boxboxboxbox?

> 2. It looks like the array only contains logged-in
> users and is filled 
> in order of login (a user who logs and her data are
> stored in the first 
> free array slot). So array position is not a
> reliable key.
 
OIC.  So would you be getting rid of the global array?
 Or would that stay there but you add a UID to the
data?  That second one sounds more plausible and
useful.

> Keying users by UID would replace username.data
> files with uid.data 
> files. Fast lookup by name would still be possible
> by building a 
> name->UID map at startup and maintaining it during
> execution. CL editing 
> would then require grepping for the username (which
> could be slow, 
> depending on the number of users), or the map data
> could be stored in a 
> file.

We probably would want to build some admin tools at
some point.  bitchslap.pl, etc.


__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software
http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com