Re: [viewvc-dev] Re: [viewvc-users] Don't display binary files

JJ wrote:
>> [Stop me here if the goals are different, or ordered differently]
>  
> I agree.

Good.

>> The only clean, not-configuration-complicating solution I can come up with
>> is to add "is_text" (alongside "prefer_markup") to the set of data
>> dictionary items for the files.
>  
> I agree.

Good.

> I personally still think we should give users the following options
> (with different names if you prefer) in the config file.  This is
> basically what I did in the patch, now altered to apply to is_text
> instead of prefer_markup.
>  
> # List of mime types for text files, specified using UNIX shell wildcards.
> # These files will have is_text set.
> # If not set, all mime types will have is_text set.  You can then exclude
> # specific types by listing them in binary_mime_types.
> text_mime_types = text/*
>  
> # List of mime types for binary files, specified using UNIX shell wildcards.
> # These files will not have is_text set.
> # These values will override those in text_mime_types.
> #binary_mime_types =

Why?  Why do you need both of these?  The world can be cleanly split into
those files which are human-readable, and those which aren't.  Period.  The
very presence of a configuration option that allows folks to define the
members of one of those sets implies that members *not* in that set are in
the other one.  If it ain't text, it's binary.  Why force folks to spell out
both cases?

> # If a file has no mime type, should we set is_text?
> no_mime_type_is_text = 0
>  
> Sure, they could modify the mime types file, but for some users it may
> make more sense to only list binary files instead of text files.  In
> addition some people might be dealing with numerous files that have no
> extension at all.  Some will want those files treated as text and others
> will want them treated as binary.

And some will want some of them treated and binary and others as text.  You
can't please everyone.  Fortunately, folks using Subversion can set real
svn:mime-types properties on their files and not have to suffer ambiguity.

> What do you think?

I've been on the ViewVC mailing lists for years now, so I think I have a
pretty good idea what folks do and don't like about the tool.  The average
user doesn't care that ViewVC shows links to diffs and annotations of binary
files (or they don't care enough to complain on these lists about it,
anyway).  They simply don't take those links because they know what they'll
find.  And in the future, they might not find errors -- some folks have
already expressed an interest in allowing diff plugins that could generate
deltas of binary file formats that support them (such as Microsoft Word).

The average administrator is not going to want to try to figure out if
extension-less files are binary or textual in nature as a rule, and what
that all means.  I certainly don't want to think about that stuff every time
I setup a ViewVC instance, and as I mentioned, Subversion already provides
the mechanism for eradicating that ambiguity.

Few folks bother to change the templates to make use of the prefer_markup
bit at all.  Why?  Because in the absence of perfect algorithms, folks want
the power to tell the tool what they want it to do even if it thinks that's
not what they want.

I'm sorry that this conversation has dragged on so far, and I appreciate
your patience, but I think I'm convinced that goal #2 is a non-goal.  +1 on
text_mime_types, but nothing else is really impressing me.

-- 
C. Michael Pilato <[email protected]>
CollabNet   <>   www.collab.net   <>   Distributed Development On Demand

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