[Twisted-Python] ldaptor feedback

[Tommi Virtanen]

On Wed, Jul 02, 2003 at 11:50:55AM -0400, Bob Ippolito wrote:
> > > I think LDAP is pretty cornerstone to any internet application
> > > where 'single sign on' and other directory information is 
> > > required.   If it was available, I even picture game servers
> > > or muds using it... 
> > 	You mean you hope it will be? (Quick! Name three end user
> > 	applications using LDAP!)
> Outlook, Windows 2000, MacOS X, (Apple) Address Book, Eudora, Netscape Mail, etc.
  1                               2                     3       4

	Applications, not operating systems have some way to use LDAP.
	Now look at them. They all use LDAP as address books.
	The part about LDAP is an extra value for places that already
	happen to use LDAP. Very few places would actually start
	to use LDAP just for that. Plus, its all inside one organization.
	What a "core internet protocol".

	Don't misread me, I wouldn't be writing Ldaptor if I
	thought LDAP was useless. It's pretty nifty. But don't think
	its anywhere near HTTP or SMTP in relevance.
	(In fact, one nice use for Twisted would be to use XML-over-HTTP
	as an LDAP replacement.)

> > 	Let me repeat myself. If installing one library is too
> > 	much effort for you, you are using the wrong OS.
> Twisted and LDAP are cross-platform.  You shouldn't try make that kind of argument.

	And how does Twisted's cross-platformness make inferior
	operating systems less painful?

> > 	(Oh, did you notice that the openldap library is not
> > 	in the libc?)
> OpenLDAP (slapd and the client libraries) come with MacOS X and MacOS X server.
> Every version of Windows 2000 and later releases based on the same tree can speak LDAP.

	You're pretty much missing the point.

	OpenLDAP is a separate library.
	The W3C WWW library is a separate library.
	xmlrpc-c is a separate library.

	If it's hard for you to have separate libraries, you have issues.
	If you're trying to say "but all I need is in my OS", then you are
	stuck using what your OS has, and exactly the version your OS has.
	That's still an inferior OS, for it has bad extendability and is
	upgradable only at the mercy of the vendor.

	Besides, I frankly don't give a shit about commercial OSes.
	If ldaptor didn't work on win32 or solaris, I wouldn't even know.
	That's just not interesting. (Other people are free to fix
	portability problems; I may even merge their changes, if they
	are clean. That doesn't contradict the above.)

> It's not in the libc because it's not part of POSIX or ANSI C.

	Thats pretty weak, there's a lot in many libcs that isn't.


	I wonder what this discussion is aiming at? You people keep
	telling me that LDAP is important, and I'm still the only
	one implementing it.

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