2009/11/19 [email protected] <[email protected]>: > All the discussion about mnemosyne needing file > access to write scheduling data is simply tangential to his inquiry, > and I don't think he misunderstood this so much as ignored it because > it was irrelevant, or he failed to see why you all linked user-access > to cards with programmatic-access to files. I also have trouble seeing > why these need to be treated as inseparable - it never occurred to me > to implement his request by letting the user edit the deck and then > blocking the program at the write stage. *Of course* you would be > better to block the user at the GUI before any editing took place. > (This is especially true if the scheduling data and content data are > in the same file, but the GUI would still be the natural blocking > point regardless of where the data was. If nothing else, it would be > unkind to let legitimate users waste time doing editing if their > changes could not then be saved.).
Fair point; even a trivial password-based edit-locking feature might be enough to discourage casual vandalism of other students' decks. Then you could add another password for each student to allow them to grade the cards (i.e. so student A can't simply load student B's deck, and click "learn ahead of schedule", repeatedly marking everything a 5 to ruin the scheduling), aside from the teacher's edit-permissions password. I guess I got bogged down in the fact that this is a 'security through obscurity solution' - i.e. a very thin layer of protection since one can do anything they like to the deck file in the operating system - delete, copy, overwrite with garbage, etc,. and the OP didn't seem to understand that (or as you say, may have just ignored that consideration because he saw it as irrelevant). But at least an optional password protection in the GUI might be enough to discourage trivial, casual messing (where the students aren't interested or destructive enough to bother finding the deck file outside of Mnemosyne and wiping it) and solve most of the OP's particular problem. Just like speed bumps can't completely prevent speeding, only make it enough of a nuisance that most drivers passing them will slow down. Oisín -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "mnemosyne-proj-users" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/mnemosyne-proj-users?hl=.
