Feature req for GPGME

[Marcus Brinkmann]

On Wed, Sep 25, 2002 at 06:55:32PM -0500, Robert J. Hansen wrote:
> This led me to wonder about the feasability of adding an operation to
> GPGME, something like:
> 
> GpgmeErr
> gpgme_get_key_struct(GpgmeKey key, GpgmeKeyStruct &kstruct)
> 
> Any given keystruct would be populated with the data associated with the
> key--everything shy of the GpgmeKey itself.

The reason why we don't have such an interface is that it is not extensible:
If you change the structure, you break binary compatibility.  It's very
simple to write a small wrapper that reads out the needed attributes and
puts them in a struct, and you can adopt that to your own needs.
 
> It would seem that just having a single function call to get all the
> relevant data about a key would be a useful addition to GPGME.  I know
> we have get_as_xml(), but then you have to have some additional function
> overhead to turn the XML representation into a representation directly
> usable to a C programmer.

Well, yes.  Or just call the get attribute functions, which gives you the
function call overhead.  Neither is nice, but breaking binary compatibility
is not nice either ;)
 
> Otherwise, I'll just go back to lurking on the list. 

It's tempting to say yes just to prevent that ;)

Thanks,
Marcus

-- 
`Rhubarb is no Egyptian god.' GNU      http://www.gnu.org    marcus at gnu.org
Marcus Brinkmann              The Hurd http://www.gnu.org/software/hurd/
Marcus.Brinkmann at ruhr-uni-bochum.de
http://www.marcus-brinkmann.de/