Re: [Groff] [groff/patch] transparent gzip

[Mark Veltzer]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

Ralph !

I understand all of your objections. How about this idea:

Find a generic C library (free source, maintained by a third party) which 
sits on top of libc which gives transparent access to various file types and 
can be programmed by the groff level (to allow/prohibit various types of 
compressions, data source types etc...).

Advantages:
1. Remove the need to wrap system file handles with opaque_fp and will cut 
down the groff code. system file handles wont be used anymore. It's that 
libraries problem of reading the source from now on.
2. Will not mean that you need to add every new compression type to groff.
3. The third party library will evolve independantly and will gain more and 
more plugins which will make groff handle more and more types as time goes by 
with minimal intervention by groff developers (only when API changes).
4. Phenomenal possibilities: groff would be able to read off FTP, HTTP, a 
record of a database, various compression/encryption types etc...

On the bad side it will make groff dependant on another library.

I think that this solution is the best one.

I'd like to hear your opinion about it...
(BTW: I would love it if gcc would support this kind of thing...).

Mark
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.0.6 (GNU/Linux)
Comment: For info see http://www.gnupg.org

iD8DBQE9aLo7xlxDIcceXTgRAuT8AJ4kaxjQwg4YnBCppy+3Z2pWeKbwqwCg5Ixd
zKgeZJzk3h/2PF2UmZ3vkwo=
=qoSU
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----