externals

[Jan Schenkel]

Randall,

What you are asking for is:
a) not available right now
b) requires low-level operating system triggers
c) has interesting prospects for good use
d) but can also lead to abusive software

The fact that not all operating systems readily expose
this information, means a developer has to somehow
supply and support a mechanism for each target
platform. 

Couple that with the fact that your favorite OS may
not even send out triggers immediately but rely on a
polling mechanism, and the water gets even murkier. A
number of things you are asking would have to hook
into the file system code itself (HFS, NTFS, FAT-32,
ZFS,...).

Low-level operating system triggers are particularly
hard to create and difficult to maintain, and getting
it to work correctly and consistently accross multiple
platforms and versions of each platform, is a serious
challenge.

Now suppose we live in a world where there are such
triggers and we can capture them as events in our
Revolution apps, this would of course be an incredibly
empowering experience for developers who can't stomach
C and would much prefer the ease and speed of
development of Revolution.

But if any malignant developer could just tap into
those same triggers, they could write software that
tracks your every move and reports back to a remote
server in about 5 lines of Revolution script.

Kurt's response boiled down to: With great power comes
great responsibility.

As for having any suggestions? How about these:
- learn C and even some x86 assembler
- learn more about file systems
- learn more about operating systems
- research how to tap into the I/O parts of the kernel
OR 
- try to find and hire someone with the above skills
to implement this for you
- have your checkbook ready and figure in a hefty
maintenance cost of the code when planning the project

I'm afraid there's no such thing as a free lunch,
especially not for what you seek.

Jan Schenkel
--
Quartam Reports & PDF Library for Revolution
<http://www.quartam.com>


--- Randall Reetz <randall at randallreetz.com> wrote:

> Sarah, do you have any suggestions (on topic)?  I
> have been very clear (at least i have tried to be
> very clear) as to exactly what i need and why and in
> what form and where i think it needs to be done and
> even how.  To me, this seems like a big win win for
> rev and the whole community... A whole new way to
> gain control over the computing experience...
> Through xtalk (transcript?).  No?
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: "Sarah Reichelt" <sarah.reichelt at gmail.com>
> To: "How to use Revolution"
> <use-revolution at lists.runrev.com>
> Sent: 1/20/2009 11:54 PM
> Subject: Re: externals
> 
> Calm down Randall. Kurt and everyone else has been
> trying to help you.
> If you disagree with any suggestions, feel free to
> ignore them, but
> there is no need to insult people for making them.
> I'm afraid you will
> find it a lot harder to get any help around here if
> that is the way
> you respond.
> 
> Sarah
> 
> 
> 
> On Wed, Jan 21, 2009 at 5:41 PM, Randall Reetz
> <randall at randallreetz.com> wrote:
> > Wow, what the hell does this spy software you
> recomended have to do with automation?  What i am
> after is the complete opposite of what this junk
> does.  This is about empowering the user, not
> enslaving them.  What i am after is about leting the
> user get their computer to do stuff for them before
> they ask.  Why would you suggest such crap?  Sad.
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: "Kurt Kaufman" <kkaufman at snet.net>
> > To: use-revolution at lists.runrev.com
> > Sent: 1/20/2009 3:54 PM
> > Subject: externals
> >
> > "...An intermediate application that would launch
> at startup and
> > listen to the flile system event loop... Waiting
> for user defined
> > events and sending them out to my reactor app. (or
> any other stack or
> > app so inclined)..."
> >
> > I take it the "Activity Monitor" is not specific
> enough and/or does
> > not keep track of events at the level you're
> describing.
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