Re: Pre-LC Review Requested: System Information API

On Mon, May 10, 2010 at 3:23 PM, Max Froumentin <maxfro@opera.com> wrote:
> On 10/05/2010 11:12, timeless wrote:
>> Please note, that like Jonas, I'm not endorsing any of this.
> What do you mean by that?

Oh, it's sort of a standard disclaimer that people involved with
Mozilla or as members of other companies which aren't necessarily part
of the working group tend to include. But Jonas's disclaimer was
funnier.

>>> If both highThreshold and lowThreshold parameters are specified,
>>> the success callback is triggered if and only if the property value
>>> is either lower than the value of lowThreshold or higher than the
>>> value of highThreshold.
>> It's odd that you've stuck this into lowThreshold but not high
> What do you mean?

==
attribute double highThreshold
    This attribute has no effect on the get() method. On the monitor()
method, it indicates that the successCallback is only be triggered if
the property is a number and its value is greater than or equal this
number.
attribute double lowThreshold
    This attribute has no effect on the get method. On the monitor()
method, it indicates that the successCallback is only be triggered if
the property is a number and its value is lower than or equal this
number. If both highThreshold and lowThreshold parameters are
specified, the success callback is triggered if and only if the
property value is either lower than the value of lowThreshold or
higher than the value of highThreshold.
==

That last sentence is only present in the description of the second attribute.

>>> Indicates whether the internal power source is currently charging.
>>> A value of true, indicates that the battery is being charged. If
>>> false then the battery is not being charged.
>> What if I have an external battery which is being charged?
> then both isExternal and batteryBeingCharged are true.

The description says "internal power source is currently charging",
I'm offering to charge the external power source. I think you should
elide "internal".

> I've looked for a reference that explained the meaning of all the terms that
> I considered, and failed to find one. Do you know if there is something out
> there that would indicate what those terms mean?

Wikipedia's articles here don't seem particularly bad:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Load_(computing)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CPU_usage

>> Sentence.
> Why?

Your emacs already fixed that.

However. Round 2:
!>     The list of all the network connections.

[the][]

>> What if I'm using 2 or more connections concurrently?
> That's very advanced for this API. See previous discussions on this topic.

Link please? :)

>> The VPN case worries me.
> Sorry to hear. Why?

People are unlikely to be aware that exposing details of their vpn
connection is more interesting and potentially dangerous than just
exposing their network connection. I might be willing to provide the
connection details for my normal network connection, but corporate
policy probably doesn't want me to disclose my vpn's information.
Above you've specified that the UA can only disclose one, so which
does it pick (and how?).

>> TYPE_BLUETOOTH?
> or IRDA, RS-232, USB, WAP, etc. I wasn't sure where to draw the line and
> include standards that define a whole protocol stack, or ones that merely
> act as tethering protocols, or ones that just encapsulate Ethernet. I'd very
> much welcome a comprehensive list.

I'd kinda want the list to be based on properties (pulse based v
cable, power expensive, currency expensive, range [short, medium,
long]):
USB is Cable+Minor+Free+Short.
Ethernet is Cable+Minor+Free+Medium.
IRDA is Beam+Medium+Free+Short.
Bluetooth is Radio+Medium+Free+Short.
GPRS is Radio+Expensive+Expensive+Medium.
WiMax is Radio+Expensive+Expensive+Long.

People generally don't need to know the name, they need to know the
attribute (is it $0, is it power hungry, can I ask the user to shake
the screen, ...).

>> Or a UA defined type?
> As a free-form string? It's tricky because they're basically not usable.

The contrast was to this:
==
attribute unsigned short code
    The code attribute SHOULD contain one of the error values defined
in this specification. An implementation MAY define additional error
codes, but those MUST NOT use the numeric values defined here.
==

Btw, I'd suggest that you reserve a certain range, either for
standards values or for UA values.

>> This is not what I think about when I read RAM. I'd rather "FLASH"
>> even if it's terribly inaccurate.
> I'd rather something accurate, so any suggestion is welcome.

My colleague here said "usually they'd call it Flash", so let's
pretend I didn't posit that it might be inaccurate.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_memory

seems to indicate that Flash is perfectly reasonable.
"Not to be confused with USB flash drive or Memory card" is funny, because:
> A memory card or flash card is an electronic flash memory data storage device used for storing digital contents.

>>> The number of image sensor elements (pixels) of this camera
>> This is a strange way to write what you're trying to say.
> What's a better way?

Dunno, my problem is:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixel#Megapixel

==
... each sensor element can record the intensity of a single primary
color of light....
These sensor elements are often called "pixels", even though they only
record 1 channel (only red, or green, or blue) of the final color
image.
==

The problem is that there's a 3x multiplier between "sensor elements"
and what I think you want ("pixels").

This isn't my area, I'm just a parser.

Received on Monday, 10 May 2010 15:37:19 UTC