Questions about the Backend Interface

[Derek Atkins]

So, I've been working on implementing an RPC backend, but I've
got a few questions:

	0) There appears to be no way to allow the backend to callback
           to the client to request a username/password or some other
           authentication.  I don't like the "hack" of putting the
           username and password into the URL.

	1) What is the purpose of the trans_rollback_edit() method?  I
           can't seem to find any information on it, and as far as I
           can tell nothing actually implements it.  My only guess is
           that it's the opposite of "begin_edit" when there aren't
           any changes (so, it's basically a "commit" without making
           any changes to the transaction.  Is this true?

	2) There appears to be no way for the backend to trigger an
           event to the engine/GUI if something happens.  For example,
           I'd like the backend (server) to signal to the engine
           (client) that some information changed, or perhaps even
           pushing the changed information.

	3) The 'sync()' operation seems to be an extremely heavy
           operation, especially for a networked backend.

Thanks,

-derek
-- 
       Derek Atkins, SB '93 MIT EE, SM '95 MIT Media Laboratory
       Member, MIT Student Information Processing Board  (SIPB)
       URL: http://web.mit.edu/warlord/    PP-ASEL-IA     N1NWH
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