Re: [Deskbar] Separating UI and backend

[Mikkel Kamstrup Erlandsen <kamstrup daimi au dk>]

On Thu, 2005-10-27 at 23:48 +0200, Mark Rosenstand wrote:
> 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 :-)

Hehe... Well deskbar is not actually my child. It's Nigel Taos, I'm just
the one raving about it :)

I absolutely get your point. Putting a daemon on the bus might be
overkill. I have no idea on how much overhead this gives. Benoît Dejean
asked 

"Is deskbar-applet designed so that other programs in other languages
can make searches ?"

 - and I just grabbed my old dbus idea an posted it :) I think it allows
a ton of new features and usage possibilties for deskbar, but as you say
it comes at a price... That was also why I would like to discuss it.

Cheers
Mikkel