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Message-ID: <002c01c0fd65$bd868d90$0200a8c0@lifelesswks>
From: "Robert Collins" <robert DOT collins AT itdomain DOT com DOT au>
To: "Joseph S. Testa" <jst3290 AT cs DOT rit DOT edu>, <cygwin AT cygwin DOT com>
References: <Pine DOT GSO DOT 4 DOT 04 DOT 10106241740110 DOT 11848-100000 AT tin DOT cs DOT rit DOT edu>
Subject: Re: New front-end for OpenSSH SFTP client
Date: Mon, 25 Jun 2001 20:58:16 +1000
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----- Original Message -----
From: "Joseph S. Testa" <jst3290 AT cs DOT rit DOT edu>
To: <cygwin AT cygwin DOT com>
Sent: Monday, June 25, 2001 7:41 AM
Subject: New front-end for OpenSSH SFTP client


>
>
>        I've recently completed Beta 1 of a Windows front-end that I've
> made for OpenSSH's SFTP client (with cygwin, of course).  Its called
> 'Shaolin Secure FTP', and is available for free at:
>
>        http://hogs.rit.edu/~joet/
>
> Comments and suggestions are welcome.
>
>
>        - Joe Testa

Comments: (well you asked :] )

1) Do you know that under the GPL you need to make available the source
code for cygwin1.dll when you redistribute it? You are redistributing it
in your .zip file...
2) It's a bit disappointing that it's written in a proprietary language.
I don't have the $$$ to buy borland * product (Delphi I presume), so
having the source really doesn't help me much at all. And yes free
speech != free beer... all the same something that I can build here -
say c++ would be much nicer.
3) I' not about to use a product that needs a customised ssh and sftp.
If you can get your alterations rolled into the unix product fine. (Why
break the output format anyway ?)

Other than that - hey great concept....

and suggestions
1) Put the source in CVS - there are plenty of available
free-software-supporting CVS repositories available. Chris Faylor has
even been known to make CVS space available on sources.redhat.com for
worthy projects. CVS does several things I consider important: It
provides a change history; it allows relatively easy concurrent
development and finally it means the end user can track your progress
without having to download an entire zip each time.
2) Also it might be nice for visitors to your site to be told that it's
under the GPL before downloading the file (not that I object to the GPL
:] ).
3) Use bz2. Mucho smaller on source. (Saved 100k at default on your 1.5
Mb archive, and given you only had 700kb out of 4.5Mb extracted data
thatsnot too bad).
4) Use C++ or C. Really. Even TCL.
5) If you distribute changes to something (ie ssh) distribute contextual
diffs, not replacement files. It eases your support burden and makes
your change more long lasting. (Folk can see what you are changing, not
just the new file, and thus can still use your code on newer source).
6) Don't redistribute cygwin1.dll. It's trivially available from
cygwin.com via setup.exe, which will also install the correct mount
table and allows folk to update cygwin1.dll easily. That also frees you
from needing to distribute the tarball of the cygwin source. Lastly, as
cygwin won't operate correctly with multiple version skewed copies ona
single machine, it will reduce user complaints.

Rob


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