Re: [Deskbar] Another [already] nostalgic happy user

[Gabriele <phoenix1987 gmail com>]

This is very sad. I'm a great fun of this applet too and surely i'm going to miss it. Yet as a developer myself I understand the words of Sebastian Pölsterl, 'cause I have a few project on my own that i keep maintaining in my spare time and I surely need some help from other guys.

Not a long time ago I've tried to develop a new plugin for deskbar-applat that would've allowed to search for packages and files with aptitude and apt-file, but this project of mina has been suddenly dismissed due to lack of time. One day maybe I can consider the possibility of contributing to deskbar-applet, who knows...

It occured to me though that the project gnome-do has a few similar capabilities. By the way I've found hard to switch from deskbar-applet to gnome-do and actually i'm still using deskbar-applet.

Well...all of this just to let you know that you are not alone. I'm gonna miss deskbar-applet too ;)

Cheers

Gab.

On Sat, Jul 2, 2011 at 10:46 AM, Sebastian Pölsterl <sebp k-d-w org> wrote:

Am 01.07.2011 22:29, schrieb John Accoun:
> Hey all.
Hi John,

> Just like Addadi, I'm another happy deskbar-applet user that would like to
> keep using it.
>
> I don't know what the real purpose of this email is besides sharing my
> opinion, but here it goes anyway...
>
> I've been using gnome for many years and the deskbar applet for maybe 3
> years or so. Deskbar applet and tomboy notes are the two pieces of software
> I use the most on my personal computer.
> The recent developments in gnome made me take the decision of changing my
> desktop environment. The reason why I haven't move to openbox yet is the
> deskbar applet. There are many launchers out there, personally I like kupfer
> and gmrun too, but both of them are in my opinion inferior to the deskbar
> applet, no offense to the good people developing and maintaining them.
>
> I find all this rather sad. Gnome is the result of the hard work of many
> people, it shines as a light/simple yet powerful/efficient desktop
> environment and now because of the current eye candy trends that legacy is
> going to be trashed.
>

I agree with you that dropping applets from gnome-shell was not a good
idea. I complained in the past, but to no avail. The fact is that
apparently an applet-like infrastructure is not longer wanted in GNOME3.

> [...]

> I think this project could be perfectly saved and mophed into a stand alone
> application instead of a panel applet. I am a software developer myself
> myself, but my knowledge on free desktop technologies is limited. I actually
> dug a bit into them a while ago and found myself in an unpleasant swamp of
> undocumented libraries and standards. So I unfortunately I don't have what
> it takes to maintain this project.
>

Actually, you can use as a standalone application for quite some time,
it isn't obvious though. Start deskbar-applet from the command line with
the "-w" option will bring up a regular window.

Unfortunately, just removing the applet related parts won't do it. You
would have to port quite some code to make it GNOME3-ready. This at
least includes porting from pygtk2 (GTK2) to pygobject (GTK3) and from
gconf to dconf. Those tasks will take a considerable amount of time to
complete.

> I also noticed that most of the people that maintains software that is
> tightly integrated with gnome, either works or has worked as a developer of
> applications for gnome.
> For an outsider, this feels like it's some kind of a secret society, and
> honestly, I myself lack the patience to walk whatever path to get into such
> circles.
> While deskbar has proper documentation for plugin developers, the docs that
> would provide one the necessary skills to write deskbar applet itself are
> nowhere to be seen.
>

Keep in mind that many developers maintain their applications in their
free time, including myself. Therefore, they prefer to write actual code
instead of writing documentation. Getting to know the internals of a
project is never easy, but I'd be happy to help anybody who is serious
about maintaining deskbar-applet in the future.

> Sorry if this was a long email. It may be my farewell to deskbar applet.
> To all those who contributed to this great little tool, my sincere
> gratitude.
> So long deskbar applet.
>

Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts. Unfortunately, I
don't think the situation will change until someone else is stepping up
to lead the project in new directions. I myself moved on by now and
accepted that fact that deskbar-applet's time expired.

--
Greetings,
Sebastian Pölsterl


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