Re: [coldsync-hackers] ColdSync 1.5.0 snapshot (and RFC)

[John-David Smith <jdsmith@astro.cornell.edu>]

Andrew Arensburger wrote:
> 
> On Sun, 12 Nov 2000, John-David Smith wrote:
> > Andrew Arensburger wrote:
> > >         I guess I should point out that I tentatively deleted your install
> > > mode, when I realized that it was essentially the same as restore mode.
> >
> > I thought restore mode was to restore everything from a directory, as in the
> > case of a hard reset.
> 
>         That's the way it was, originally. Now it's better, IMHO:
> 
>         coldsync -mr /my/file.pdb /my/dir
> 
> copies /my/file.pdb , and every database in /my/dir to the Palm. Since you
> can specify individual files, you can use this to install files.

Sounds good.  I wonder if it should even be called "restore" then.  This has a
sense of "recover to a prior state after some big screw up", in most Palm
circles, which of course it can be used to do, among other more pedestrian
and/or less useful things.  

In some sense, an additional "restore" mode which simply uses the backup/
directory from configuration data to recover the state of the device, without
any command line arguments required (or accepted), might be clearer.  

User: "Oh no I dropped my Palm into the toaster, and it reset."

%coldsync -mrestore

User: "Ahh, saved again."

Technically unnecessary, but conceptually cleaner.  And since they are the same
operations with different inputs only, the code should not be redundant, or
onerous.  

Now that we've overloaded "install" to include the notion of conduits, another
word altogether might be in order.  Upload?  Transfer?  Suggestions?

JD

P.S. One issue with ColdSync that I feel might need addressing soon is status
message reporting.  Currently, the conduits can report various things with
various levels of urgency, which may or may not be reported based on the debug
level settings.  What is missing is the level of info the casual user (not the
conduit programmer) who likes to get feedback might want.  Something like a
verbose (-v) switch, which may or may not map directly onto some combination of
facility:level pairs.  Something at the level of pilot-xfer's messages.  I know
your ultimate goal is a fully hands-off background daemon, but there will always
be people who want to see what's happening, be it on the command line, or in
some more graphical way in a front end.  Just my cent pair.

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