Re: New module proposal: tracker

[Martyn Russell <martyn lanedo com>]

On 18/08/09 16:53, Alberto Ruiz wrote:
> 2009/8/18 Martyn Russell<martyn lanedo com>:
> > On 18/08/09 16:18, Jamie McCracken wrote:
> > > The indexer part is optional
> >
> > Well, right now it isn't but it will be at some point sure.
> >
> > > The main part tracker-store is just a database with querying and is to
> > > be used by zeitgeist
> > >
> > > If the consensus is that indexer is not suitable for inclusion then the
> > > separate tracker-store should be considered for inclusion separately
> >
> > That doesn't make any sense to me either. On its own it is useless then, at
> > least with the file system crawler it can populate the database and be
> > usable.
>
> I don't agree here, Tracker-store is actually quite useful without the
> file system indexer, we're already using it to grab data from the
> network at Codethink. Although I agree that the indexer gives
> tracker-store unleashes the full potential, a semantic storage of its
> own is quite useful as some applications can use it for more
> specialized things than just bulk hard disk indexing.

Well, as I said earlier, if you download tracker and all it has is a 
store, you can't actually use it because there will be no data to query 
and no way to populate the data without depending on other applications. 
With the file system miner you at least have fallback to use and it can 
be optionally disabled by ISVs if they have other needs/miners.

> IMHO tracker-store should be a module of its own, and the indexer be
> just one of the different possible providers. (This will also help to
> avoid confusion when people talk about what tracker is and what
> tracker isn't).

Well, I don't think that helps. We also discussed releasing tracker with 
no UI and people on the mailing list already said it wouldn't be useful 
and were against it. What you are suggesting here is similar and I think 
people would be much more against it.

The only reason you're suggesting tracker-store shouldn't be called 
"tracker" is due to the social stigma associated with what Tracker is, 
i.e. all about the file system. If people understand the changes then 
there really is no need to do this. Clear communication can resolve that.

--
Regards,
Martyn