Re: Revisiting the Gnome Bindings

["Murray Cumming" <murrayc murrayc com>]

> I've always wanted to rewrite both gnome-cd and gnome-sound-recorder
> using python.  The python bindings for GNOME are absolutely excellent,
> and given the number of bug reports and feature requests on these
> applications where lots of code needs to be added for stuff like "HTTP
> CDDB proxy support" which is much more sensible to do in something else
> than C, I really don't see either application evolve at all in the near
> future.
>
> However, nobody seems to be able to tell me what would happen if I were
> to actually rewrite and add features this way.  Would it bring pygtk and
> gst-python in the GNOME platform ?

No, because the Bindings are a platform, and part of the release, even if
they are not quite as popular.

> Would it kick gnome-media out of
> there ?

Difficult to say, but probably not. I don't think that the "Desktop apps
don't use Bindings" thing is an official rule set in stone by anyway. Like
I say, it's a different question.  But C is just used lots because it is
by far the most popular and used language in our community. Lots of people
want something else, but they don't all want the same thing.

By the way, gnomemeeting (and I think epiphany) use C++, though they don't
use the C++ bindings. Nobody has suggested that they should not be in the
desktop. gnome-system-tools uses perl.

There's no answer to your question, because nobody can say what the
community wants. If you think there's a really big payoff to using pygtk
in your Desktop module, compared to the disadvantages, then I think you
should seriously suggest it and go for it.

(By the way, gnome-python is not on the GNOME schedule, and not officially
API-stable, though pygtk is, so that could be a practical problem. The
final pygtk 2.4.0 has also not yet appeared like it should have.)

Murray Cumming
murrayc murrayc com
www.murrayc.com
www.openismus.com