[Grub-dev] do we even really need a native client

[Yousef Ourabi]

On 1/8/08, Balinny <balinny at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Yousef Ourabi wrote:
> > Let me start off by saying I believe the new client for Unix like
> > operating system should be written in a dynamic language such as perl,
> > python, ruby, or even all of the above...
> There's no point in doing so. Make an API in agnostic C / C++. All those
> languages have bindings with C libs. Then you python app could vary from
> a call to DoAllStuff() to doing each of the steps with at a lower level.


It depends on what you are optimizing for. Yes, all those languages have the
facility for c-bindings / extensions. But that means you have to re-compile
the extension for every platform, vs having a pure python implementation
that is guaranteed to work any where python works (cell phones, pda's...etc)


> As I sit here, typing into this gmail inputbox via Firefox after just
> > finishing my rant on why the client should be written in a dynamic
> > language -- the thought occurs to me that perhaps the notion of a
> > native client is very 90's and what we should really be thinking about
> > are browser extensions that implement the same functionality if not
> more.
> >
> > [[ Disclaimer: this is not an original idea, I believe the Heretix
> > folks are or were up to something similar with the "Monkeys" project
> > if memory serves correctly ]]
> >
> > Think of this:
> > A Firefox plugin that meets current functionally (gets list of URIs,
> > crawls, creates ARC, puts to grub.org...)
> > But also (with user consent / warning) registers new urls with the
> > grub server
> Having the work done with Firefos is a swift knife, very nice but you
> can get cut.
> You can be crawling what the user browses with no overhead (just the
> upload, you are already downloading it). The user finds new urls for you.
>
> Some things you need:
> *Very strict following of Cache directives, Vary, Cookies, HTTP
> authentication...
> *Easy button to toggle crawling/not crawling.
> *Remove from crawled data before sending (error in configuration, spam
> site...).
> *Blacklist of sites to crawl.
> *Ability to execute in XULRunner
>
> Some sites you wouldn't want to get crawled under your nick:
> *somepornsite.com Typical example
> *myemployer.com It's not of your interest who i work for.
> *searchingjobs.com My employer wouldn't like this.
> *search queries Note they're usually cacheable!
> *etc.


I agree with a button for turning off crawling but that is it.

After giving the user clear and adequate warning / explanation we should
crawl every site he browsers. Somepornsite.com could be a legitimate search
result for some one.  In short, the plug-in will not be forced on users,
they have to seek it, nor should we baby sit them. If they browser porn, we
spider porn.

I don't see where Xulrunner comes into this, Xulrunner is firefox without
Gecko -- so people are not browsing around with Xulrunner anyway....? Unless
I'm missing something big?

just my 2 cents.



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