Re: [9fans] mothra

[Lucio De Re <lucio@proxima.alt.za>]

On Tue, Jul 18, 2000 at 08:51:26AM -0400, rob pike wrote:
> 
> > I have a vague feeling that this can be mapped onto a filesystem, or am
> > I dreaming?
> 
> It has to be done very very carefully because URLs are not a naming
> system.  C.f. the discussion earlier on this topic, I argue for a model
> more like /net than ftpfs.  We've started explorations in that direction,
> but it's too early to tell if we'll get anywhere useful.
> 
Accepted that URIs are an abomination :-) but consider "html2ps",
misguided Perl script that it is.  Within its own limits, it is quite
capable.  If one draws the line at locally available information for
the presentation (the rendering engine), the actual information
retrieval may just have to be less canonical.

Treating the two problems as one is likely to lead to desperation, but
perhaps by attempting to decouple them, they may become more
tractable.

You already have a perfectly good uget/hget, which I thought would
make a fine replacement for the DHCP client, anyway - why have a
plethora of protocols to retrieve an arbitrary set of key=value
entries?  Why not use HTTP?

But ignoring that sidetracking, I think a rendering tool that relies
on hget for the data input and something similarly simple for form
filling purposes, ought to be within human abilities.

Keep in mind that I, at least, believe that the web browser is quite a
versatile tool, and it is hard to imagine a computing resource of any
value that does not include such a tool.  In fact, imagine having to
live without it for any length of time at this point.

That said, perhaps more of us should approach Opera and request a
port.  I am surprised they did not respond, perhaps you forgot to
highlight quite who you were?  A bit like David Korn and the famed
Microsoft press release of their Windows tools for Unix?

I'll try and do some needling, the Opera people seem to have completed
their port to BeOS and whatever else, although not to Linux, unless
I've missed their annoucement, they may have resources to spare.

I must say I respect their persistence in the face of enormous
competitive pressure.

++L