GConf Stability - how to add icons to panel

[Brian Cameron <Brian Cameron Sun COM>]

Last December I discussed Interface Stability on the desktop-devel-list
and you can refer to the conversation here:

   http://mail.gnome.org/archives/desktop-devel-list/2004-December/msg00461.html

As a part of our ARC process, when one team in Sun wants to integrate via an
interface that another team at Sun owns, a contract is typically created
to ensure future support between the two teams.

Recently, a team at Sun wanted to integrate their own icons into the panel,
and worked with one of my co-workers to integrate via the mechanisms described
here:

  http://acd.ucar.edu/~fredrick/linux/gnomeconfig/

So now we need to put together an internal contract, but realized that
without some assurance from the GNOME community regarding the best interfaces
to use, we can't really provide the assurances the internal contract requires.

There doesn't seem to be a more official documentation site at GNOME that
highlights the appropriate ways to integrate with GConf.  Which key/value pairs,
for example, are Stable and safe integration points.  So users do not need to
fear that the key might change in a non-backwards compatible way.

I notice that the GNOME Admin Guide has slightly different instructions for
how things should be integrate with the panel, but I know this documentation
was written for GNOME 2.0 and might be out-of-date.

  http://www.gnome.org/learn/admin-guide/2.0/ch01s06.html#gconf-14

So, I have a couple questions:

1. To fulfil our needs to create an internal contract at Sun, it would be great
   if someone could explain the correct/best approach for integrating into
   the panel.  It would also be useful if people could highlight if this
   interface is Stable and will be supported in an on-going fashion.

2. It would probably be a good idea if someone put together a document that
   could go on the dgo website that explains which GConf keys are intended to
   be Stable integration points that should be supported in a backwards
   compatible fashion.  I'd be happy to put together something.  Would going
   through the Admin Guide and digging out all the Gconf keys that we recommend
   user's change be the best way to get this information.  Are there additional
   documents that might be recommending GConf changes that should be supported?

In a prior email, I mentioned that some people at Sun are working to put
together a proposal regarding how to better organize the way GNOME installs
itself to the filesystem.  Just wanted to mention that we are making progress
and should have something to present in the next few weeks.

Thanks!

Brian