Re: [Monotone-devel] Confusing terminology between usher and monotone and proposed change

[Richard Levitte]

In message <address@hidden> on Mon, 9 May 2011 17:09:50 -0400, Hendrik Boom 
<address@hidden> said:

hendrik> On Thu, May 05, 2011 at 10:42:41AM +0200, Richard Levitte wrote:
hendrik> > I've had a closer look at the terminology used in usher and in
hendrik> > monotone, and there is a part that's quite confusing:
hendrik> > 
hendrik> > In usher terminology, different databases are served by different
hendrik> > monotone server, and therefore, the URI to access them through a
hendrik> > server name would be expressed as mtn://HOST/SERVER?PATTERN.
hendrik> > 
hendrik> > In monotone terminology, the same URI is expressed as
hendrik> > mtn://HOST/PATH?PATTERN.
hendrik> > 
hendrik> > Furthermore, usher is a server in its own right, so when talking 
about
hendrik> > the usher+monotone combination, it might be confusing to talk about a
hendrik> > server, as it might not always be clear if you're talking about the
hendrik> > usher server itself or one of the underlying monotone servers.
hendrik> > 
hendrik> > Also, in usherctl, the confusion is increased, since it uses PROJECT
hendrik> > to designate what usher calls SERVER and monotone calls PATH.  This 
is
hendrik> > confusing since monotone has another idea of what a project is, and
hendrik> > will just increase as soon as policy branches are in place.
hendrik> > 
hendrik> > 
hendrik> > To clear the confusion, I propose that we make a terminology change 
in
hendrik> > usher, where the term SERVER (to designate a monotone server entry in
hendrik> > the usher configuration) be changed to PATH (with the implicit
hendrik> > understanding that a PATH is then served by the monotone server in
hendrik> > said entry).
hendrik> 
hendrik> This would presumably be the server name in the "server" line.  The 
hendrik> "foo" in 
hendrik>     server "foo"

With my idea (just for the sake of being explicit), the following:

    server "newpub"
    local "--confdir" "/home/levitte/usher.projects/newpub" "-d" 
"/home/levitte/usher.projects/newpub/database.mtn" "--no-standard-rcfiles" 
"--rcfile" "/home/levitte/usher.projects/newpub/monotonerc" "--timestamps" 
"--ticker=dot"

would be replaced with:

    path "newpub"
    local "--confdir" "/home/levitte/usher.projects/newpub" "-d" 
"/home/levitte/usher.projects/newpub/database.mtn" "--no-standard-rcfiles" 
"--rcfile" "/home/levitte/usher.projects/newpub/monotonerc" "--timestamps" 
"--ticker=dot"

In human terms, the former would be expressed "this is the server
named 'newpub', and local indicates how to start it."  The latter
would be "the path 'newpub' is served with a monotone started with the
arguments given by local."

hendrik> But the word "path" is in common usage to a sequence of
hendrik> directory names separated by slashes, possibly ending in a
hendrik> file name.

The word "path" has been expanded, especially if we speak in URI
terms, to something of a structured notation to reach a specific
resource within a specific realm.  That's exactly the way PATH is
used in mtn://HOST/PATH?PATTERN .

hendrik> This still leaves room for confusion, since (unless I'm
hendrik> grossly confused) it's not the file name of the data base
hendrik> that's wanted here.

No, it's not the file name of the database, but it's a way to reach
it.

My main issue, though, is that things are expressed differently in the
monotone speak and in usher speak, that's where we have a real
possibility for confusion.  How would you have it?

-- 
Richard Levitte                         address@hidden
                                        http://richard.levitte.org/

"Life is a tremendous celebration - and I'm invited!"
-- from a friend's blog, translated from Swedish