Re: [Deskbar] Separating UI and backend

[Mark Rosenstand <mark borkware net>]

On Thu, 27 Oct 2005 21:19:18 +0200, Mikkel Kamstrup Erlandsen wrote:
> I have been puzzling with this idea over the last week or so...
> 
> Maybe we should separate GUI and search backend completely. The
> current architecture makes this quite easy. Basically make a small
> script that starts ModuleLoader/List exports a few handy methods over
> DBUS and becomes a daemon. As far as I can see the only stuff the
> daemon needs to export over the bus is
> 
> 	- search (string, categories=All)
> 	- configure () # popup pref dialog
> 	(- present_results_in_cuemiac (coords))
> 
> The last one is not necesarily a good idea to export, but would be
> handy so other potential users won't have to write their own
> presentation widget. 
> 
> This might fare best as a part of the Cuemiac project, but would
> certainly be feasible in the current setup too.
> 
> This architecture would allow us to go more in the direction of
> Gnome-launch-box and a run-dialog-replacement, and generally integrate
> with other apps. The Python bindings for dbus are quite cool and well
> documented.
> 
> What do you guys say?

I think you're pushing it now :-) considering the...should we say
"strong reactions" from some people on the g-d-l recently. If using
deskbar-applet requires at least 2 procs, likely both written in
python, it might get too heavy even for some of my hosts :-(

Even if the applet (or whatever front-end) was written in C you'd still
have the heavy python proc, plus the front-end. Don't get me wrong, I
don't mind deskbar-applet is written in Python, rather the opposite,
but you should keep the purpose of deskbar-applet in mind. I don't
think it's broad enough to justify a daemon, but since deskbar-applet
is your child, I fully understand if you don't care about how I think
you should raise your children :-)