Re: Cheese Architecture Redesign

["Patryk Zawadzki" <patrys pld-linux org>]

On Sun, Jun 22, 2008 at 8:52 PM, Hernan Gatta <gattahernan gmail com> wrote:
> Hello,
>
> Cheese has been evolving quite some recently and I've been looking at the
> ideas that you would like to see implemented in the upcoming releases in
> order to make Cheese even better. However, I have indeed looked at the code
> and I am afraid to say that as with almost any program coded in C, Cheese
> will exponentially grow in complexity as features are added. I've tried to
> add some of the features and the code-base is pretty complex to work with in
> terms of dynamically managing the Gstreamer pipeline, for instance. I would
> like to propose a new design based on Mono (.NET) that would allow a very
> simplistic (and even cross-platform) core filled with easy-to-write
> extensions based on the Mono.Addins framework (look at
> http://www.mono-project.com/Mono.Addins).

You are free to write a new Cheese clone from scratch then get it
included in GNOME. However I don't see how that makes handling
gstreamer pipelines easier or how it makes the whole thing more
portable (I know more machines that can process native machine code
than .NET bytecode).

> Applications like this one exist
> already and are seeing a growth in usage like Tomboy Notes and Banshee as
> well as the MonoDevelop IDE. I'd like to point out that the user interface
> need not change, just the underlying code; although I would like to see some
> sort of OpenGL-based GUI should the user's system support it in order to
> bring more "bling" to the program (using things like Clutter as a back-end -
> http://clutter-project.org/).

That's what we (web developers) call "mystery meat" - letting "bling"
take over the interface. It does not make the program easier to use
and is the best way to cut yourself from the existing accessibility
stacks and alternative input methods.

> I've started some work on this myself already
> and I will continue to work on it. I would like to hear your input on this
> idea and see what can be done about it.

Best luck,

-- 
Patryk Zawadzki
PLD Linux Distribution