SAMP on Windows

[Luigi Paioro]

Hello!

I have been registered to this mailing list for only a few days and I 
have just read the SAMP protocol working draft 2008-04-30.

I have seen that the issue concerning the lock file and the hub 
discovery for the Standard Profile on Windows OS have to be discussed 
yet. I don't know whether you have already faced this topic and found a 
general agreement on what is feasible and what is not, but I suggest to 
think about the possibility to store the bootstrap information on the 
Windows Registry. For instance, the Hub could store this record 
(following the example on page 23):

Hive: HKEY_CURRENT_USER
Key:  Software\IVOA\SAMP\Hub

Value Name: samp.secret
Data Type:  REG_SZ
Value:      734144fdaab8400a1ec2

Value Name: samp.hub.xmlrpc.url
Data Type:  REG_SZ
Value:      http://andromeda.star.bris.ac.uk:8001/xmlrpc

Value Name: samp.profile.version
Data Type:  REG_SZ
Value:      1.0

Value Name: samp.yoyodyne.hubid
Data Type:  REG_SZ
Value:      c80995f1


Windows Registry entries can be easily handled with the majority of the 
programming languages used today (Perl, Python, Java, .NET, C, C++, ..., 
with FORTRAN I think it's tough job, but probably feasible with some 
tricks), and it's also possible to restrict the access permissions of 
the Hub key (read access to the current user only).

Certainly, the use of Windows Registry implies an additional effort for 
the developer when s/he implements a Hub or a library to access the Hub 
(client side), because a different behavior is requested depending on 
the operative system. But I think it is worth it. The use of a typically 
Windows strategy when dealing with Windows, and a typically UNIX-like OS 
strategy when dealing with UNIX-like OS is boring but smarter.

This is just my opinion and proposal (my two cents). Think about it.

Regards,

   Luigi


-- 

Luigi Paioro

INAF - IASF Milano
Via Bassini 15, I-20133 Milano, Italy

Phone  (+39) 02 23 699 470
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