Re: Proposed module: tracker

[Joe Shaw <joeshaw novell com>]

Hi,

On Fri, 2007-01-12 at 00:19 +1300, John Stowers wrote:
> "We want desktop search" is a catch all to concisely describe what
> tracker achieves. Its phrasing is partly due to the phrasing of its
> peers, vista calls it desktop search and osx spotlight describes it as
> "search as quickly as you type (it also mentions indexing etc)".
> 
> The benefits to application authors have been described on this thread
> and on the many previous. 

I think part of the problem here is that people are combining the ideas
of "desktop search" and "metadata" as one.  The two aren't the same
thing, and you can have one without the other.

I think a lot of people see the benefit in broad desktop search.
Beagle, Spotlight, and Google Desktop have all been around for a number
of years, and if you ever used any of them, you can see their benefit.

> We have even seen GNOME application authors come in and say how they
> could use tracker to improve their applications. 

If we're talking about this thread, I haven't seen anyone come in and
say how they would use Tracker for *desktop search*.  There have been
offers for trying the *metadata storage* aspects of Tracker, but I also
haven't said any of these app developers say definitively, "I must move
my application to Tracker."  There hasn't been any clamoring from the
user base about it, we're not sure how we would use it to improve the
user experience, and without any test applications we have no way to
know its suitability for this purpose.

>  > I'm not saying that desktop search is a bad thing and that no-one
> > wants it. I'm just saying "How do we know Tracker is the correct
> > solution?"
> 
> We dont, but of the solutions presently available tracker is the best.

Obviously this is your opinion and one with which I disagree.

Joe