-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA256

On Thu, Apr 02, 2020 at 01:57:39PM -0700, Jason Phan wrote:
> Woohoo! The initial PR has been submitted (though there are some GPG issues 
> on my end).
> 
> Besides the port to Python, some other notable features in the PR include
> support for multiple PDF files and proper error handling for the qrexec 
> streams. 
> 
> There's a bit more to do but before I get started on that I have some more 
> questions (sorry):
> 
> 1. Do I have to add a docstring for every function? I tried to name the 
> functions and
>      variables so that their type and usage would be self-explanatory, plus 
> it'd be a bit
>      redundant imo since quite a few of the functions take the same 
> parameters.

Yes, self-explanatory names should be enough for simple functions. But
still, more complex functions, or with non-trivial arguments should have
a docstring.

> 2. How important is Windows compatibility here? I'm trying to replace as 
> many shell
>      commands as possible with pure Python but frankly some of them (e.g., 
> the ImageMagick
>      commands) don't have official alternatives and others for some reason 
> don't work
>      properly when implemented in Python (at least, with what I've tried so 
> far).

Right now windows compatibility (especially on the server side) isn't
that important.

> 3. The server-side rendering is just screaming to be async-ified. Any 
> objections?

Nothing specifically against. But also be careful about resources - for
example rendering all the pages in parallel is a bad idea, since there
may be many of them (and in fact we do have a test that tries to convert
500 pages PDF file).

> 4. It'd be nice to make this program more generic for like .docx and stuff. 
> Thoughts?

On the server (rendering) side that should be fine, it is "just" using a
different tool to render the file. On the receiving side I'd save it to
pdf in any case. For example docx with just images is pretty much
useless.

> 5. Right now I'm having all the files processed in the same DisposableVM, 
> should they
>      be in separate ones? I would imagine though that that would take quite 
> a bit of resources
>      if there were many files.

On the other hand, using a single DisposableVM means one malicious PDF
could access/modify other files you're trying to convert.
IMO a better approach would be to use separate DisposableVMs, but
_independently_ optimize their resource usage (for example you don't
need the whole graphical stuff and most of other service just to convert
PDF -> RGB).

- -- 
Best Regards,
Marek Marczykowski-Górecki
Invisible Things Lab
A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----

iQEzBAEBCAAdFiEEhrpukzGPukRmQqkK24/THMrX1ywFAl6Gfy0ACgkQ24/THMrX
1ywFxAf/VayFSMEQt7sNUutSfWJlfGDMlPExI2Qwh9FRIMtVeyDyiMu4407UfcgG
7JYX7CIyVxbI0lx1emcxFor9WFLfNF07WdnU6bhNDMgU44F/2gdfIj3Ka2w6INBc
+Gxhh1Gw71nCuvrgiWDc+dhVxz0TNCTCyhTFGNYvtSBTFxDKszdsSUj03nW9gk/9
hdRnykWUhBUCiACtk2dfgr+EU6aWzI4TIFlIDA44m2Jg3eGhX3VWU05YNn4jW9Nr
Ble7k4XZ8C/MVmK3MWFCMOsrkceVk9P+SXV4Upo7gYoANZtEg43SCh3qKX+V7B8L
q5UUII+oRw6Bq6svi/OR6ivz+44rbA==
=zWkV
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

-- 
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups 
"qubes-devel" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email 
to [email protected].
To view this discussion on the web visit 
https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/qubes-devel/20200403001124.GC32019%40mail-itl.

Reply via email to