Re: Actually looking at the code (GConf vs. BonoboConfig)

[Martin Baulig <martin home-of-linux org>]

George <jirka 5z com> writes:

> OK.  I must say I just had an incredible laugh.  That's because I just looked
> at the actual use of configuration stuff in libgnome* nowdays.
> 
> OK, Why was gnome-config bad?  You get no notification when things change.
> So doing desktop things with it sucks cuz apps don't redraw according to
> current settings.
> 
> OK, so where is it used now:
> 
>   gnome-exec:  to get the user's terminal preference, no need for
>                notification
>   gnome-url:   Get the users preferences of how to display urls.
>                OK a bit more complex, still no need for notification.
>   gnome-preferences:  This is an incredibly weird API as all it does
>                is wrap a couple of boolean gets.  Also this is a place
>                where you need notification, but with this API you don't
>                get it.  Usefulness of these functions compared to just
>                getting the key? 0.  Ease of notification? 0.

You still don't understand the problem.

> Yes folks this is all.  All in all, the code required to init bonobo, get the
> monickers, set things up, is about the same size as the code actually using
> these config keys.  And on the whole, it acts in EXACTLY THE SAME MANNER AS
> THE GNOME-CONFIG usage.
> 
> Look ma! we've spent the last few years working on an API so that we can do
> EXACTLY THE SAME STUFF as we did before.  And have the EXACT SAME PROBLEMS.
> 
> I don't know about the rest of you, I find this hilarious.

Same here.

> In the meantime I think we can safely dump the gconf init on program init,
> and just use it in places where we actually need notification or config keys.
> This means it adds 0 startup time.  oafd is NOT started on program init,
> gconfd is not started on program init.  No CORBA calls are made.  No extra
> code needs to be run.  No components are dlopened into memory.  Bonobo need
> not be initialized.  I think removing all init whatsoever, definately speeds
> up startup.  Don't you think?

That's indeed true.

> All code that we will need to write is:
> 
> client = gnome_client_get_default ();
> bool = gnome_client_get_boolean (client, "foo", &error);
> g_object_unref (G_OBJECT (client));
> 
> Three magical lines of code.  Aren't they beautiful ...

Not commenting on this.

-- 
Martin Baulig
martin gnome org (private)
baulig suse de (work)