doc-howto: fundamental aspects of GPGME vs Python

* Added a section for those pythonistas who are too used to web
  programming.  Stressed that it's not simply not RESTful, it's not
  even REST-like.
* Letting me move on to drawing a very loose parallel between a
  session and a context.  The differences should become obvious in the
  subsequent sections.
This commit is contained in:
Ben McGinnes 2018-03-08 15:23:05 +11:00
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#+TITLE: GNU Privacy Guard (GnuPG) Made Easy Python Bindings HOWTO (English)
#+LATEX_COMPILER: xelatex
#+LATEX_CLASS: article
#+LATEX_CLASS_OPTIONS: [12pt]
@ -200,6 +199,61 @@ Python bindings to programmatically leverage the GPGME library.
source.
* Fundamentals
:PROPERTIES:
:CUSTOM_ID: howto-fund-a-mental
:END:
Before we can get to the fun stuff, there are a few matters
regarding GPGME's design which hold true whether you're dealing with
the C code directly or these Python bindings.
** No REST
:PROPERTIES:
:CUSTOM_ID: no-rest-for-the-wicked
:END:
The first part of which is or will be fairly blatantly obvious upon
viewing the first example, but it's worth reiterating anyway. That
being that this API is /*not*/ a REST API. Nor indeed could it
ever be one.
Most, if not all, Python programmers (and not just Python
programmers) know how easy it is to work with a RESTful API. In
fact they've become so popular that many other APIs attempt to
emulate REST-like behaviour as much as they are able. Right down
to the use of JSON formatted output to facilitate the use of their
API without having to retrain developers.
This API does not do that. It would not be able to do that and
also provide access to the entire C API on which it's built. It
does, however, provide a very pythonic interface on top of the
direct bindings and it's this pythonic layer with which this HOWTO
deals with.
** Context
:PROPERTIES:
:CUSTOM_ID: howto-get-context
:END:
One of the reasons which prevents this API from being RESTful is
that most operations require more than one instruction to the API
to perform the task. Sure, there are certain functions which can
be performed simultaneously, particularly if the result known or
strongly anticipated (e.g selecting and encrypting to a key known
to be in the public keybox).
There are many more, however, which cannot be manipulated so
readily: they must be performed in a specific sequence and the
result of one operation has a direct bearing on the outcome of
subsequent operations. Not merely by generating an error either.
When dealing with this type of persistant state on the web, full of
both the RESTful and REST-like, it's most commonly referred to as a
session. In GPGME, however, it is called a context and every
operation type has one.
* Copyright and Licensing
:PROPERTIES:
:CUSTOM_ID: copyright-and-license