Re: GConf vs. bonobo-config

[Rodrigo Moya <rodrigo gnome-db org>]

On 16 Jun 2001 15:22:50 +0200, Dietmar Maurer wrote:
> Hi everyone,
> 
> I think there are many obscurities about bonobo config, how it works and how
> it is used in Gnome 2. I will try to explain that at full length.
> 
> 0.) bonobo config is not a totally new configuration database model. Instead
> it implements Havoc's great GConf database model - sorry if there was any
> confusion about this.
> 
> 1.) libbonobo is a very lightweight library, only containing non-GUI stuff.
> This library contains the PropertyBag and EventSource implementation. Both
> interfaces are widely used. One basic idea was to reuse those interfaces to
> access configuration data. We simply need no additional interface, because
> everything is already there.
> 
> 2.) We need a way to get initial references to the PropertyBags containing the
> configuration data. Again, everything is already in libbonobo - monikers. We
> can simply use monikers for that purpose, so there is no need to invent
> another plugin architecture. For example:
> 
>     pb = bonobo_get_object ("gconf:/a/sub/directory", "Bonobo/PropertyBag");
> 
> 
> Well, that's all. It's nothing more than a clean set of already used
> interfaces. The suggestion is to use those interfaces inside the Gnome 2 base
> libraries to access configuration data. For example:
> 
>     paper = bonobo_pbclient_get_string (pb, "/xyz/paper", ev);
> 
> to get the paper size. Please notice that all those functions are already used
> inside bonobo, so they are already widely used and heavily tested.
> 
> There is also no need to link against any additional library. So using
> bonobo-config for Gnome 2 makes us independent of the used configuration
> database, and it will not add a single line of code to those libraries (as
> opposed to directly using GConf).
> 
> Another question is the used default configuration database, "gconf:" or
> something else. But this belongs to another mail.
> 
so, if I've understood well, bonobo-conf is indeed the wrapper for gconf that was
agreed on, but it has also the possibility of plugging in other config
backends. Right?

So, what's the problem so in using bonobo-conf (the wrapper) in
gnome-libs? I guess Martin did nothing wrong, just the best solution IMO

cheers

--
Rodrigo Moya <rodrigo gnome-db org> <rodrigo ximian com>
http://www.gnome-db.org/