Re: Getting libgnome* into shape

[George <jirka 5z com>]

On Thu, Aug 30, 2001 at 10:31:36AM +0200, Dietmar Maurer wrote:
> > In that case why is there another Bonobo_ConfigDatabase using API that is not
> > AT ALL related to bonobo-config in libgnome?  And if that is the case, we've
> > entered a strange universe where libgnome is using neither bonobo-config nor
> > GConf but something neither of us know.  I say it's bonobo-config, you say it
> > has nothing to do with it.
> 
> Ok, we also have the ConfigDatabase interface, although most times you only use the
> PropertyBag interface. But GConf exposes many more interfaces:
> GConfClient, GConfEngine, GConfListeners, GConfBackendVTable, GConfDatabase and
> GConfSources.

Huh?  What are you talking about?  I'm not talking about what gconf exposes,
I'm talking about what gets exposed by the libgnome API.

libgnome using gconf doesn't expose ANY (NONE, ZERO, 0) gconf API.
libgnome using bonobo-config EXPOSES Bonobo_ConfigDatabase interface.

I don't care what GConf exposes, since you don't need to use it if you don't
want to.  If libgnome uses GConf, you don't need to include any gconf
headers.  If libgnome uses bonobo-config (with the current implementation)
you need to include bonobo-config headers. 

> I know, Havoc considers all those interfaces as private. But what is someone wants to
> write a new backend, or wants to access the configuration through CORBA?

If one wants to access configuration through corba he uses bonobo-config.
However, I haven't yet been convinced why does libgnome need to use CORBA for
that.  The fact that it's a 'PropertyBag' doesn't convince me.  It's an
INTERNAL use of the GConf database.  It doesn't force users to use ANY API to
access the configuration.  They could, if they wanted to, parse the information
themselves.

Why do you make it sound like using GConf in libgnome* makes GConf C API use
necessary.  It doesn't.  GConf is a required part of the platform and
required backend for the GNOME 2 platform (unless we'd want to screw the
users by changing configuration all the time).  It will have to be there even
if we use 3 other CORBA abstraction in between it and the developer.  We
cannot replace GConf within GNOME 2 platform even if we all use
bonobo-config.  We can replace it with something compatible.  In which case
we can make libgnome* use it.  Because it doesn't EXPOSE ANY GCONF API, and
that's independent on the decision to use bonobo-config or not.

George

-- 
George <jirka 5z com>
   You have the right to food money providing of course you don't mind a little
   humiliation, investigation and if you cross your fingers rehabilitation.
                       -- The Clash