[xmonad] [xmonad-contrib] XMonad.Prompt.Pass patch

[Zev Weiss]

On Aug 29, 2014, at 9:26 AM, ardumont <eniotna.t at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hello,
> 
> Here is the latest patch according to remarks.
> 
> <new-xmonad-prompt-patch.dpatch>
> Below I detail some steps I took.
> 
> Hope everything is alright.
> 
> Thanks for your time.
> 

Hi,

Much as I hate to be a wet blanket here (and obviously don't speak from a position of any authority or influence on xmonad), I'd just like to voice my from-the-sidelines preference that this patch *not* be applied.

This is not due to any objection to the patch itself, nor to the functionality it adds (which I think could be quite genuinely useful), but rather to the 'pass' tool itself.  From the description on its web site (http://www.passwordstore.org/), it seems in my opinion rather poorly designed.  The biggest (or at least most immediately obvious) problem is that keeping separate files/directories for each password (which I guess it doesn't strictly require, but is clearly geared toward) is a *massive* and completely unnecessary information leak.  Further, its dependencies (http://git.zx2c4.com/password-store/tree/README#n15) seem to me rather bulky for something that should/could be a very simple, lightweight thing.  (Also, the hubris of its author immediately declaring it "standard" is rather off-putting, and actually kind of laughable given how obviously-not-a-standard it is -- perhaps that's just some dry humour, but I get the sense it's meant sincerely.)

If an alternate backend that didn't have these problems could be used to provide this xmonad interface instead I'd be all for it -- but as is I'm opposed to it if only on the grounds of it serving to encourage further adoption of 'pass', which I simply think is a bad idea.


Thanks,
Zev Weiss