RE: [HC Evolution] Re: libole2 -> gnomevfs backend?

["Matt Loper" <matt helixcode com>]

notzed wrote:
> Uh?  Why would a user want to?  Hiding it in a single file just
> makes it impossible to edit or understand (or fix, or
> troubleshoot, etc).

An end-user should not fix, troubleshoot, or edit internal Evolution data.
That's our job.

A programmer could do this, however, if the file had a simple hierarchy of
'files' within it (like libole2). Heck, Nautilus could probably explore it
(given a "view as.." menu item selection).

> If a user has to worry about automatically created any file at all,
> then its already too complicated.

People are comfortable with files. Having a single file which represents
everything that Evolution and the Wombat needs, does not seem complicated to
me; on the contrary, it's quite simple for the user. And it seems pretty
simple for the programmer, if our file has a hierarchy of things within it.

And if you double-click on the file, Evolution fires up. From the desktop
user's point of view, this is a data-centric (rather than
application-centric, where you have to run Evolution to load your data) way
of doing things.

> "save settings as" seems to work
> pretty well, or in a real enterprise environment their settings will
> be on nfs, or in a central server (e.g. ldap), so they definetly
> will not need to be copying any config file.  Stop thinking
> like a windoze user.

Yes, there is a server which will hold the settings of the user; it's called
the Wombat. It can save the view-related settings into our consolidated
file. :)

> Doesn't really make any differnece if you ahve the interface.  A lot
> of little files is a pain to program, without the config api you'll
> have anyway.

Not sure exactly what you mean here. A web client will have to get at the
list of folders (or uri's), and they'll need to get them from the wombat.
That's the point of the wombat: a place that keeps track of all that's
personal to one user (at least wrt mail/calendaring/addressbooking), and
exposes it. But again, I'm not sure exactly what you meant here, so maybe
I'm missing the point.

Now, as Miguel pointed out, there's a lot to do, and it's possible that we
won't be able to consolidate everything immediately. But I think it's a good
goal to have.

-Matt