Re: [Evolution-hackers] how to know whether evolution is online

[Not Zed <notzed ximian com>]

On Wed, 2005-02-02 at 08:55 -0500, JP Rosevear wrote:
> On Wed, 2005-02-02 at 16:01 +0800, Not Zed wrote:
> > On Wed, 2005-02-02 at 11:41 +0530, Sivaiah Nallagatla wrote: 
> > > On Wed, 2005-02-02 at 04:00 +0000, Not Zed wrote:
> > > > 
> > > > > Isn't there a gconf key that determines the state?  Or does that just
> > > > > determine the startup state?
> > > > 
> > > > The current state is stored in gconf, but it is NOT the appropriate
> > > > way to determine when it changes.
> > > > 
> > > > It is private data used by the shell only.
> > > Oh, Why it is not appropirate?, e-d-s also listnes to this key change to
> > > switch between online/offline modes.
> > 
> > Umm, thats pretty shitty then isn't it?
>
> Why?  Really there should be a desktop wide setting for online/offline
> that is either a gconf key or arrives via DBUS.  If we rely on evolution
> to inform e-d-s, anything else using e-d-s externally may cause online
> operations.  It does suck that evolution is the only place to set the
> key right now.

Because its a bad, naive solution.

There is no way to do any cross-process synchronisation, or manage the change in state in any sane way.

Using a gconf key is simply a trivial short-term hack that wont provide the features necessary to do it properly.