Accepting broken QRcodes
5 messages, 15 to 16 Jul 2012. Started by Mike Hearn.
Gary Rowe (2), Mike Hearn, Andreas Schildbach, Wladimir J. van der Laan
Hi bitcoin-development,
blockchain.info generates non-BIP-compliant URIs in its QRcodes, as does its iPhone app. They are of the form bitcoin://address not bitcoin:address.
I asked Ben to fix this (social networks don't parse QRcodes after all), but after explaining that social networks don't parse URLs without :// in them, he stopped responding to my emails. So I've gone ahead and added support for reading these types of URLs to bitcoinj, in the interests of "just works" interoperability.
This mail is just a heads up in case anyone else wants to do the same thing. Hopefully at some point, Ben will stop generating such QRcodes and we can remove these hacks and get back to BIP compliance.
Quoted text (9 lines)
> I asked Ben to fix this (social networks don't parse QRcodes after > all), but after explaining that social networks don't parse URLs > without :// in them, he stopped responding to my emails. So I've gone > ahead and added support for reading these types of URLs to bitcoinj, > in the interests of "just works" interoperability. > > This mail is just a heads up in case anyone else wants to do the same > thing. Hopefully at some point, Ben will stop generating such QRcodes > and we can remove these hacks and get back to BIP compliance.
The problem with this "accept everything even if broken" approach is that people will probably never fix the broken stuff. So we likely end up with a fragmented de-facto standard.
That does not mean I am totally against accepting broken URLs, but there should be at least a promise that they will be fixed at the source.
Is it worth having a few more people email Ben to ask him politely to fall into line with the BIP? No point encouraging broken windows by not speaking out.
On 16 July 2012 09:16, Andreas Schildbach <andreas@schildbach•de> wrote:
Quoted text (30 lines)
> > I asked Ben to fix this (social networks don't parse QRcodes after > > all), but after explaining that social networks don't parse URLs > > without :// in them, he stopped responding to my emails. So I've gone > > ahead and added support for reading these types of URLs to bitcoinj, > > in the interests of "just works" interoperability. > > > > This mail is just a heads up in case anyone else wants to do the same > > thing. Hopefully at some point, Ben will stop generating such QRcodes > > and we can remove these hacks and get back to BIP compliance. > > The problem with this "accept everything even if broken" approach is > that people will probably never fix the broken stuff. So we likely end > up with a fragmented de-facto standard. > > That does not mean I am totally against accepting broken URLs, but there > should be at least a promise that they will be fixed at the source. > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > Live Security Virtual Conference > Exclusive live event will cover all the ways today's security and > threat landscape has changed and how IT managers can respond. Discussions > will include endpoint security, mobile security and the latest in malware > threats. http://www.accelacomm.com/jaw/sfrnl04242012/114/50122263/ > _______________________________________________ > Bitcoin-development mailing list > Bitcoin-development@lists•sourceforge•net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/bitcoin-development >
But is he the only one using the broken URLs? It was my impression that they were widespread already.
Wladimir
On Mon, Jul 16, 2012 at 10:52 AM, Gary Rowe <g.rowe@froot•co•uk> wrote:
Quoted text (52 lines)
> Is it worth having a few more people email Ben to ask him politely to fall > into line with the BIP? No point encouraging broken windows by not speaking > out. > > > On 16 July 2012 09:16, Andreas Schildbach <andreas@schildbach•de> wrote: > >> > I asked Ben to fix this (social networks don't parse QRcodes after >> > all), but after explaining that social networks don't parse URLs >> > without :// in them, he stopped responding to my emails. So I've gone >> > ahead and added support for reading these types of URLs to bitcoinj, >> > in the interests of "just works" interoperability. >> > >> > This mail is just a heads up in case anyone else wants to do the same >> > thing. Hopefully at some point, Ben will stop generating such QRcodes >> > and we can remove these hacks and get back to BIP compliance. >> >> The problem with this "accept everything even if broken" approach is >> that people will probably never fix the broken stuff. So we likely end >> up with a fragmented de-facto standard. >> >> That does not mean I am totally against accepting broken URLs, but there >> should be at least a promise that they will be fixed at the source. >> >> >> >> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ >> Live Security Virtual Conference >> Exclusive live event will cover all the ways today's security and >> threat landscape has changed and how IT managers can respond. Discussions >> will include endpoint security, mobile security and the latest in malware >> threats. http://www.accelacomm.com/jaw/sfrnl04242012/114/50122263/ >> _______________________________________________ >> Bitcoin-development mailing list >> Bitcoin-development@lists•sourceforge•net >> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/bitcoin-development >> > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > Live Security Virtual Conference > Exclusive live event will cover all the ways today's security and > threat landscape has changed and how IT managers can respond. Discussions > will include endpoint security, mobile security and the latest in malware > threats. http://www.accelacomm.com/jaw/sfrnl04242012/114/50122263/ > _______________________________________________ > Bitcoin-development mailing list > Bitcoin-development@lists•sourceforge•net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/bitcoin-development > >
I'm sure that there are many but my Google Search-Fu is not strong enough to build a query to identify how widespread they are.
Maybe once we have sufficient evidence to support the suspicion we should post to the main developer forum asking for a cleanup. After all, a Bitcoin URI starting bitcoin://<address> doesn't actually make much sense because there is no hierarchy in Bitcoin - it's flat with only an address being a mandatory element.
I don't want to be all anal about this, but looking at RFC 3986 #10 ( http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3986#page-10) it's pretty clear that introducing a false hierarchy is breaking the specification since it presumes the existence of a relative URI.
On 16 July 2012 10:02, Wladimir <laanwj@gmail•com> wrote:
Quoted text (61 lines)
> But is he the only one using the broken URLs? It was my impression that > they were widespread already. > > Wladimir > > > On Mon, Jul 16, 2012 at 10:52 AM, Gary Rowe <g.rowe@froot•co•uk> wrote: > >> Is it worth having a few more people email Ben to ask him politely to >> fall into line with the BIP? No point encouraging broken windows by not >> speaking out. >> >> >> On 16 July 2012 09:16, Andreas Schildbach <andreas@schildbach•de> wrote: >> >>> > I asked Ben to fix this (social networks don't parse QRcodes after >>> > all), but after explaining that social networks don't parse URLs >>> > without :// in them, he stopped responding to my emails. So I've gone >>> > ahead and added support for reading these types of URLs to bitcoinj, >>> > in the interests of "just works" interoperability. >>> > >>> > This mail is just a heads up in case anyone else wants to do the same >>> > thing. Hopefully at some point, Ben will stop generating such QRcodes >>> > and we can remove these hacks and get back to BIP compliance. >>> >>> The problem with this "accept everything even if broken" approach is >>> that people will probably never fix the broken stuff. So we likely end >>> up with a fragmented de-facto standard. >>> >>> That does not mean I am totally against accepting broken URLs, but there >>> should be at least a promise that they will be fixed at the source. >>> >>> >>> >>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ >>> Live Security Virtual Conference >>> Exclusive live event will cover all the ways today's security and >>> threat landscape has changed and how IT managers can respond. Discussions >>> will include endpoint security, mobile security and the latest in malware >>> threats. http://www.accelacomm.com/jaw/sfrnl04242012/114/50122263/ >>> _______________________________________________ >>> Bitcoin-development mailing list >>> Bitcoin-development@lists•sourceforge•net >>> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/bitcoin-development >>> >> >> >> >> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ >> Live Security Virtual Conference >> Exclusive live event will cover all the ways today's security and >> threat landscape has changed and how IT managers can respond. Discussions >> will include endpoint security, mobile security and the latest in malware >> threats. http://www.accelacomm.com/jaw/sfrnl04242012/114/50122263/ >> _______________________________________________ >> Bitcoin-development mailing list >> Bitcoin-development@lists•sourceforge•net >> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/bitcoin-development >> >> >