Re: Proposed module: gvfs

[Shaun McCance <shaunm gnome org>]

On Thu, 2007-12-20 at 16:40 +0100, Alexander Larsson wrote:
> svn/git/bzr/...: http://svn.gnome.org/viewcvs/gvfs/
> 
> Short description:
> ==================
> gvfs is a userspace virtual filesystem implemented as a pluggable module
> for gio (a new module in glib). The glib part of gio supports the
> general APIs required for a virtual filesystem, but only has an
> implementation for local files. GVfs is a unix-specific implementation
> that uses out-of-process mount daemons and dbus for talking to the
> daemon.
> 
> gio is part of glib 2.15.0 and will be released on schedule for gnome
> 2.22. Both eel and nautilus has been converted to use gio instead of
> gnome-vfs.

<disclaimer>
This is an analysis of the documentation, made on behalf of the
Gnome Documentation Team.  It does not necessarily reflect my
personal opinion of the module or its suitability for inclusion
in Gnome.  In many cases, I have not made extension use of the
applications or libraries provided.  Further insufficiencies in
the documentation may become more apparent with more use.
</disclaimer>

gvfs is a module for gio.  As such, most of us programmers
won't interact with it directly.  Instead, we will use the
gio APIs, which will be implemented by gvfs.  Therefore,
documentation for gvfs isn't strictly necessary.

The gio documentation itself could use some love (at least
according to what I'm seeing on library.gnome.org).  That
is at least partially relevant to the discussion, because:
 1) gvfs is only relevant if we use gio, and
 2) gio should be well-documented if we expect developers
    to switch to it.
On the other hand, it's not as if gnome-vfs has exemplary
documentation, and that's the status quo if we don't start
using gio.

--
Shaun