Re: GConf debate ... the hermenutical key

[Sander Vesik <Sander Vesik sun com>]

On Sun, 17 Jun 2001, Jody Goldberg wrote:

> On Mon, Jun 18, 2001 at 01:40:00AM +0100, Sander Vesik wrote:
> > 
> > Another thing - people still working on getting their application ready
> > and doing so on gnome-1.4 can very esily make use of gconf and then when
> > moving to gnome-2.0 just not touch that part of the code - essentially
> > foregoing the need to retest a non-trivial part of their programs
> > (preferences). 
> 
> Gnumeric still uses the gnome_config cruft specificly because of the
> ambiguity in direction between pure gconf and bonobo-conf(ig).  I'd
> rather not waste the time migrating to an api (gconf) that may be
> deprecated in favour of PropertyBags.
> 

Exactly - may. 

> Delaying the jump to new interfaces is what has slowed gnome
> development and forced revolutionary rather than evolutionary
> api change.
> 
> - libxml : We should have made the jump to 2.0 as a group long ago
>   (eg post 1.2) Look at the bugs and wasted effort due to continued
>   use of the old code.
> 
> - gtk : I'm sure it has lots of wonderful improvements but after two
>   plus years there are so many that it will be a huge mouthful to
>   swallow and port to.  For 2.0 applications seem likely to be
>   minimally ported to the new api, just enough to get them working.
>   We'll need a number of point releases for the apps to get caught
>   up to the platform and start actually using the new features.
> 
> If we're going to use a new api we need to get it out there more
> quickly and not build up swaths of semi overlapping 'pending' apis.
> 

Well, before there can be any real move to having people agree that
bonobo-config is indeed the way we want to go. For now, this part of the
picture is totally missing. In fact, if there wasn't this flamewar a lot
fewer people would know in the first place it existed at all.

	Sander

One day a tortoise will learn to fly
	-- Terry Pratchett, 'Small Gods'