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rid of double ## on copyright: reserved for Doxygen; add: Doxygen props
mod_tex 0.1-beta TODO
Peter Danenberg <pcd at wikitex dot org>
http://wikisophia.org
ABSTRACT
Things to do (exigenda) and things done
(exacta) are recorded here.
14 February 2007
TODO -i- mod_tex 0.1-beta
Table of Contents
1. Exigenda . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1. Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1.1. Multiple Documents . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.2. Documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.3. Handler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.4. Jailkit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2. Exacta . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.1. Generic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.1.1. Cache . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.2. Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.3. Client . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.3.1. Cache . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.4. Documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
3. Copyright . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
4. Colophon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
14 February 2007
TODO -1- mod_tex 0.1-beta
mod_tex 0.1-beta TODO
Peter Danenberg <pcd at wikitex dot org>
http://wikisophia.org
1. Exigenda
1.1. Server
Temp-dir
tmpwatch and cron
Parse-trees
Bring back parse-trees, since Graphviz is not
a drop-in replacement.
Back-end
Transition to an array of chrooted Apaches;
dump SimpleXMLRPCServer on the back-end.
Error-messages
Facilities-flag in default.py to return out-
put from a process, giving feedback; useful
for: LaTeX or LilyPond, for instance, to dis-
close syntax errors.
Not so useful for dvipng, etc. (sysadmins can
retrieve that from the syslog).
Some way to scrub sensitive data like paths?
The chroot path-structure is well documented,
though.
File-size
Limit requests to size X to avoid memory DoS?
Graphviz
Optional link map (outsource source to exter-
nal link)?
Cache
Server-side cache (outsource?)
Templates
Some protocol options to turn off templates
for naked encoding (but not for gnuplot, for
instance, that depends upon the template to
return an image).
14 February 2007
TODO -2- mod_tex 0.1-beta
Config
Windows-style config files (or XML?).
Crontab
Crontab to delete daily cruft (left over from
over-ambitious users who outstrip resources,
causing files.
Actions
Plenary Classes
Install
Replace ad-hoc installations by copytree;
fail on directory existence.
1.1.1. Multiple Documents
Protocol
Protocol change: return a dictionary of
{MIME: ARRAY} objects; where ARRAY is an
array of matching documents (such as
dvipng's image-per- page).
Structure
Breadth-first or depth-first: meaning,
array of atomic dictionaries; or an
array of unbound arrays?
Second may be slightly more efficient in
those cases where one source, for
instance, wields multiple targets (e.g.,
latex to multiple PNGs); but more diffi-
cult to distinguish between uneven and
incomplete data.
First may require some redundance (e.g.,
redundant MIDIs per LilyPond page, or
source per LaTeX image); but is cleaner,
and determinant.
The superset renderer will have to
receive a glob of targets; but how does
it distinguish between partitioned (e.g.
PNGs) and whole (e.g. LaTeX-source)
data?
And if partitioned data should come back
incomplete or in disparate quantities?
Can flag partitioned data, I suppose.
Bottom line: don't want to fuck up clean
design; but may relent to multipage out-
put if necessary. (LilyPond's eps
driver, for instance, outputs the whole
14 February 2007
TODO -3- mod_tex 0.1-beta
document in one page; can link to an
optional pdf if multi-page output is
desirable.)
General solution: offer optional alter-
native download (PDF, say) for multipage
docs, specified as parameter.
1.2. Documentation
jailkit.ini
Document jk_init commands.
Fontconfig
Fontconfig issue with NONE deposited in each
directory.
Doxygen
Real doxygen; what to do about docstrings,
though? Answer: wait until docutils matures
into automatic reStructuredText extraction.
(Doxygen also does the nice call-graphs,
though; and (who knows?) may do docstrings at
some point.)
TODO Raus; find something else: bugzilla?
Permissions
Work with MediaWiki to restrict usage
(optionally) to certain classes of users.
XML-RPC-lib
Add fallback-support for phpxmlrpc or Incutio
for those with little control over their
installations, willing to take a performance
hit.
1.3. Handler
Throttle
A "check back in X seconds" message on over-
usage.
Database
Swap out home-brew lock system for some
heavy-duty piece-of-shit (mysql, say; post-
gre; or even sqlite3).
1.4. Jailkit
Paths
Dynamic jailkit with gno-tools (./configure,
etc.); throw in --with-user, --with-group,
etc.; or: make a build_jailkit target in
14 February 2007
TODO -4- mod_tex 0.1-beta
setup.py.
2. Exacta
Server-client dichotomy
Server is now its own entity: mod_tex; the client,
a MediaWiki client, is mod_tex.
Packaging
Combine both server and client into a common pack-
age, or utterly segregated (thus possibly not con-
fusing the client-users)?
Latter: combined source; `src' directory: con-
tains: `client', `server'.
PHP-client
Basic request working; now to do something useful
with it.
Temp-dir
Does cleanup happen after exceptions? (The object
is deleted, after all.)
Yes.
Python Apache-handler
Trader Joe acts as a middle-man between locally
running, unprivileged, chrooted servers and the
requesting public.
More efficient? Possibly; will rebuke the prema-
ture optimization for now.
THANKS
Get Erik in there. Hephaistos, Hermes Charmophron,
Apollon, Hestia, Hera, Athena, dodeka Theoi.
Footer/Header
mod_tex <VERSION> in footers or headers, across
from date
Honest work in subserver
Invocation of latex, dvipng
Web install
Installs into web-root and changes ownership.
Title page
ms-macro to institute title page (include with
.so)
License
Includable ms-file for license (.so)
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TODO -5- mod_tex 0.1-beta
2.1. Generic
2.1.1. Cache
Purview
Client-, server-side or both?
Failure
Problem: in 1.0+, failed rendering don't
get cached and are rerendered every day.
Distinguish, therefore, between server-
and syntax-failures; and cache accord-
ingly.
No: a simple flag PHP side will turn
on/off error caching; functioning sys-
tems can turn it off for performance,
and for debugging purposes: back on.
It may be useful to distinguish between
temporary and permanent errors, now that
we have ad-hoc classes.
2.2. Server
Debug
Add a verbosity option on some facilities to
be invoked when modtex-debug is invoked; and
quiet, otherwise.
Config
Simplified on excision of client.
Resource Limits
Don't setrlimits in case of debug.
Facilities
Facility constructor takes merely a **kwargs,
and populates accordingly; no pre-set vars.
(Implemented: pre-set args and **kwargs.)
Debug
build_scripts command which takes --debug and
disables optimization in modtex-main.py
No: rather a modtex/main.py, and two trivial
wrappers: modtex and modtex- debug, which are
invoked with `python -O' and `python' respec-
tively.
IP-throttle
Database of author vs. time
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TODO -6- mod_tex 0.1-beta
setrlimit
Per-request (post droppriv)
MIME-types
Currently a non-descript list in Constants;
instantiate MIME-wrappers with well-defined
instance variables.
Delivery
Client-server contract for the delivery of
content (keys for XMLRPC response); encode in
a format parseable by PHP: XML, say?
Right now: using an implicit contract (image:
content). A low-tech published API may suf-
fice.
2.3. Client
Source
`errors' directory to house the manifold.
Authentication
CURL-lib on PHP can handle basic and key-
based.
Errors
Unified error presentation.
Documentation
Own PHP-client documentation, or combined
with server's (current).
2.3.1. Cache
Purview
Use MediaWiki mechanism with its over-
head, or some ad-hoc system?
MediaWiki
MediaWiki mechanism: must be tweaked to
forbid arbitrary upload; but can detect
orphaned files: Special:Unusedimages.
Must forge, apparently, a subclass of
WebRequest, filling in artificial val-
ues.
Home-brew
Own mechanism: lightweight; but respon-
sibility (cruft).
14 February 2007
TODO -7- mod_tex 0.1-beta
2.4. Documentation
Territory
Copyright notices, etc.
README Mon Jan 22 08:36:11 PST 2007
Installation
Build Sun Jan 21 01:46:55 PST 2007
Build target in Setup.py which invokes the
Makefile in doc.
3. Copyright
mod_tex: distributed LaTeX-rendering over Apache
Copyright (C) 2007 Peter Danenberg
You should have received a copy of the GNU General
Public License version 2 along with this program; if
not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 51
Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301,
USA.
4. Colophon
This document was prepared in GNU troff using the
ms macro package; preprocessed with tbl, the table for-
matter; and lastly filtered through col to remove
reverse line feeds and tabs:
groff -ms -t -Tascii SOURCE | col -bx > OUT
Automatically generated contents were moved from page
last to first with an ad-hoc bash-diddy.
14 February 2007
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