Prototype code/specification in Freedesktop [Was: Mono bindings a blessed dependency?]

[Ross Burton <ross burtonini com>]

On Fri, 2006-04-21 at 11:29 -0400, Joe Shaw wrote:
[re: Tracker]
> > Oh, it's a freedesktop project.
> 
> This isn't a dig on tracker, but I don't really agree with the
> implication of this statement.  Putting something up on freedesktop.org
> doesn't automatically bless it in some utopian cross desktop way.  

This touches on something I've been unhappy about regarding
freedesktop.org for some time now.  There is no "approved" and "in
development" distinction in the SVN, project URLs, etc.

For example, we all agree that the Desktop Entry spec is a true
freedesktop standard, and it's URL is
http://freedesktop.org/wiki/Standards/desktop-entry-spec.  It's used by
GNOME, KDE, XFCE, and many other systems.

The Tracker metadata specification, or to give it it's full and rather
grand name the Shared File Metadata Specification, is at
http://freedesktop.org/wiki/Standards/shared-filemetadata-spec.  There
is one application that implements this specification, and that is
Tracker.  It's changing frequently as problems are pointed out (timezone
was added to some of the date fields this week), but to the untrained
observer it's as blessed as the Desktop Entry specification, which is
obviously incorrect.

Here I point to Apache, which in each project (Java, XML, httpd, etc)
has a sandbox area.  This is where new code gets developed, new
specifications written and tested, and only when they are demonstrated
to work, be required, and actually solve valid problems are the
sandboxed projects promoted.

I believe that freedesktop.org needs something like this, so that it's
obvious from the beginning if a project has just started being developed
or is a real life de facto standard/popular library in real world use.

[note that I'm not subscribed to xdg, so please CC]

Ross
-- 
Ross Burton                                 mail: ross burtonini com
                                          jabber: ross burtonini com
                                     www: http://www.burtonini.com./
 PGP Fingerprint: 1A21 F5B0 D8D0 CFE3 81D4 E25A 2D09 E447 D0B4 33DF