Tokens are near impossible to type by a human

[Simon-Laux]

I tried it and I failed.

Ideas that could help:

• inserting spaces or hyphens
• use base64 instead of base32
• some sort of compression (not zip, because zip needs a large dictionary)

[rklaehn]

They are not meant to be typed as a human. They contain a 32 byte node id that is random and can not be compressed. No matter what dictionary you use, this will be a pain to type.

Not sure what can be done about this tbh. Use DNS or a similar mechanism to assign a name to a node id, with all the downsides this has? Definitely not something we would require by default for this tool.

[Simon-Laux]

Splitting it into chunks separated by characters that are outside of the base32 would already help readability greatly, because then it become easier to check for errors:

dumbpipe connect nodeedijgsumxv3p3jtthg2j7y4y7unfsw2teeju2qkyvrwpgh3nrmpgaaicaqambkfsgsh4caya3hxntn4pyebqciadadea6ayyaaclvt4qdpphfn4qyebqciadadea6ayyabccehucpvyt4xuqyebq
# vs
dumbpipe connect nodeedijgsum.xv3p3jtthg2j.7y4y7unfsw2t.eeju2qkyvrwp.gh3nrmpgaaic.aqambkfsgsh4.caya3hxntn4p.yebqciadadea.6ayyaaclvt4q.dpphfn4qyebq.ciadadea6ayy.abccehucpvyt.4xuqyebq

some examples:

chunks of 12 chars:
nodeedijgsum_xv3p3jtthg2j_7y4y7unfsw2t_eeju2qkyvrwp_gh3nrmpgaaic_aqambkfsgsh4_caya3hxntn4p_yebqciadadea_6ayyaaclvt4q_dpphfn4qyebq_ciadadea6ayy_abccehucpvyt_4xuqyebq
chunks of 5 chars:
nodee_dijgs_umxv3_p3jtt_hg2j7_y4y7u_nfsw2_teeju_2qkyv_rwpgh_3nrmp_gaaic_aqamb_kfsgs_h4cay_a3hxn_tn4py_ebqci_adade_a6ayy_aaclv_t4qdp_phfn4_qyebq_ciada_dea6a_yyabc_cehuc_pvyt4_xuqye_bq
chunks of 8 chars:
nodeedij_gsumxv3p_3jtthg2j_7y4y7unf_sw2teeju_2qkyvrwp_gh3nrmpg_aaicaqam_bkfsgsh4_caya3hxn_tn4pyebq_ciadadea_6ayyaacl_vt4qdpph_fn4qyebq_ciadadea_6ayyabcc_ehucpvyt_4xuqyebq

I think _ is the best character for this, because double click still selects the whole string, but - would be better for subdomains, though I can't think of a use case where tokens are put into a subdomain 🤷 (anyways this would be only cosmetic anyway, just to help humans to type it)

[rklaehn]

We can make any non base32 char a separator that just gets stripped out during parsing. So _ would work.

Tickets can't be a subdomain because they are too long. A subdomain is limited to 64 chars, and a ticket that contains direct addresses will be more than that.

[taotien]

I think a good option for desktop users would be to automatically put the token or command into the clipboard. I dunno if sending the string to stdout would work, but that would be another option such that the user can then pipe into wl-copy or save to a file.