VFS

Posted: 08/24/07 05:45:10

We're in the middle of the D conference, so please have some patience :)

Posted: 08/27/07 16:44:52

I think I'm patient enough. So let the discussion begin. :)

I've been thinking of adding functionality to handle archives (ZIPs for the moment) to tango, and making sure that this support is transparent (like, invisible to end-user). Entire directory trees could be collapsed to archives (well, for gaming purposes, this is a very nice property). This is what I'm up with currently:

interface IPack {
	// returns name of the pack file (this is the actual archive file name)
	PathView name();
	// open file in the pack file with the provided style
	IConduit open( char[] filename, FileConduit.Style style );
}

// this conduit is used to marshal data in and out of ZipFile
final class ZipConduit : Conduit {
	private this();	// TODO: params

	uint bufferSize();
	Handle fileHandle();
	uint read( void[] dst );
	uint write( void[] src );
	override void close();

	private {
		ZipFile			parent;
		FileConduit.Style	style;
		// TODO: checksum calculator
		// TODO: compressor/decompressor
		// TODO: temp buffer for in-place compression/decompression
	}
}

// this buffer encodes/decodes data you pass to it
final class ZipFile : IPack {
	// create new archive
	this();

	// open existing archive for reading, writing or appending
	this( char[] filename );
	this( PathView filename );

	PathView name() {
		return path;
	}

	// returns ZipConduit
	IConduit open( char[] filename, FileConduit.Style style );

	private {
		PathView		path;
		FileConduit		fc;			// file conduit

		// TODO: archive entry table
		// TODO: list of active ZipConduits
	}
}

// this class implements a stream filter for writing/reading compressed
// data in GZIP format
final class GZipFile : Conduit {
	uint bufferSize();
	Handle fileHandle();
	uint read( void[] dst );
	uint write( void[] src );
	override void close();

	private {
		// TODO: CRC-32 calculator
		// TODO: temp buffer for in-place compression/decompression
	}
}

What do you think on this? I might be wrong at understanding basic tango io concepts.

There are lots of issues I can see, oh well.. I would surely use some advice/help. :)

Posted: 09/15/07 18:07:39

Thanks for your answer!

Please leave a note here when interfaces get solidified so I can contribute. :)

Cheers.

Posted: 09/20/07 17:53:42

don't forget the network connections

gnome has a nice vfs.