Re: New IDL

[Ian Campbell <ijc25 cam ac uk>]

> module GNOME {
>   module Balsa {
> 	interface Balsa { 
> ?
> 
> btw, 
> module GNOME {
>   module Balsa {

The top one would give like GNOME::Balsa::Balsa::CheckAllMail (I
think). It would be nice if we could have GNOME::Balsa::CheckAllMail and
still have GNOME::Balsa::FolderBrowser::* - I haven't got a clue how you
achieve this in IDL (although your second example looks reasonable..)

> or should something there be called "Mail" ? or should be a property of the
> interface (in bobonospeak if i'm not mistaken)

I would stick with Balsa, since it is really an interface that is specific
to balsa.

In the future I imagine there will be somesort of standard gnome mailer
IDL (as an offshhot of evolution I shouldn't wonder) At this point it
would make sense to support both (or maybe just one - depending on how
useful the GNOME mailer interfaces are to us..)

> 
> 
> > BTW - the attachments attribute is a string, perhaps it needs to be a list
> nod
> 
> > (sequence in CORBA parlance I think) of strings, or even a list of octet
> > sequences or something?
> > 
> the attach stuff has issues and is prety much a placehold now. prolly, corba
> and network speaking what i need is to pass the whole attachments, not
> references
> to them. this sounds miserably like Bonobo::Stream. i have to look into this.
> 

I don't know if you noticed, but there was a thread about the
Desktop::Editor interface on gnome-devel recently. The interface is
totally crap, but it was installed and so people started using it, this
lead to a discussion of IDL interfaces being immutable and stuff.. The
point being that some pople believe the interfaces shouldn't change at all
once they are released (I agree with this - but not the solution of
creating Desktop::Editor2 and stuff...)

I only mention this so that you remember not to install the IDL file
anywhere until it is finalised. And stick a bloody great warning about not
using it at the top too.


> > The same could apply to the body and stuff, an octet sequence might be
> > more useful.. Might be worth looking at Bonobo::PersistStream and friends
> yup .. 
> 
> > - it would make sense to reuse stuff if it fits, in the future I hope to
> > make BalsaMessage embed Bonobo controls for displaying attachments, so the

> oh. i looked at bonobo and did without it to keep the extra weight down but
> sounds like it's a necessity to keep stuff simple

Well, better to have all the bulk in Bonobo where it can be shared than
reimplementing it in every app...


> > Whats the CORBA support on a palm like? or do you use a conduit which then
> > speaks CORBA to balsa?
> > 
> gnome-pilot has corba stuff to put dbs on the palm and get the status of the
> daemon and such. this would be a conduit that drives balsa. sync mail, get 
> unread messages from balsa mailbox(s), send mail in pilot's outbox.
> everything on gnome-pilot is modular as conduits except for the core stuff 
> like pilot-link and UI and such.

Cool, I want one even more now and I was trying to save this summer too,
damn ;-)

Ian