Re: gnome-vfs dependency for bonobo (was gnome_mime vs. gnome_vfs_mime)

[Miguel de Icaza <miguel helixcode com>]

> The gnome-vfs API is only necessary for Nautilus because we built on top of
> it at Miguel's suggestion. Are you saying that gnome-vfs is now considered a
> technical dead end? If so, Miguel and Ettore essentially led us into a trap,
> because we had planned our project without gnome-vfs and they strongly
> suggested that we use it, saying that all of GNOME would be using it for
> GNOME 2.0.

Please stop playing the victim.  I am tired of your conspiracy
theories (yours and Maciej) and I really have more important things to
do that constantly addressing your whining and your complaints.

Here is what happened:

	 * When we first met with Eazel (Nat, Ettore and me) you guys
           were working in private on Gnomad, a C++ based file manager,
           the precursor to Nautilus.

	 * Ettore was working on gnome-fm, a gnome-vfs based file
           manager which is what we believed at the time to be the
           right way of doing things.

	 * We had designed the gnome-vfs about 5 months before in
           Paris when Ettore and I first met.

	 * Ettore -as I have said before- had already told me that he
           did not like the vfs approach, as it was limited only to
           files, and would lead to a file manager, not an object
           manager.

	 * Ettore presented the design of his file manager, and then
           you presented yours.  Ettore did not like the Gnomad
           design, which would lead in the future to him resenting my
           decision. 

	 * We agreed that Ettore would stop working on the C-based
           gnome-fm for the sake of Eazel getting involved with the
           GNOME community and Eazel would continue to work on Gnomad,
           its C++ system, and that you guys would look into using the
           GNOME VFS.  

	   This made Ettore very upset with me.  I now regret it,
           because gnome-fm would have been a much better file manager
           than Nautilus is.

	   Ettore would still be involved maintaining the gnome-vfs,
	   because we wanted to use it also for Evolution.

	 * The GNOME VFS made sense because we had faced in the past
           blocking file managers and we had faced in the past the
           need for network transparency.

	   Nobody put a gun in your head to use the GNOME VFS, we told
           you what we felt needed doing, but we had no control over
           what you did.  Ettore, Nat and me even agreed on the C++
           based file manager.  

	 * A few months later I got WereYak excited about writing a
           WebDAV module for the GNOME VFS, which is now core of one
           of your service offerings (It constitutes 50% of the Eazel
           services), so I wonder how did we "trap you" into using the
           GNOME VFS. 

	 * Ettore then stopped working on the gnome-fm because I
           requested him to do so.  

	 * While we were having this conversation over at Eazel
           (Ettore, Nat, Andy, Ramiro, Darin, Mike and me) Elliot came
           out of the blue and started making a shell for his help
           browser (hyperbola or something) called Nautilus, which was
           yet another file manager.

	 * Over the next few days Elliot posted a few descriptions of
           what Nautilus did and Nautilus was already using Bonobo
           components so you guys got excited and decided to drop
           Gnomad and C++ to use Nautilus.

	   I believe Elliot pulled a good hack by taking pieces of
           gnome-fm and putting it into Nautilus, which in some way
           lead to you guys to switch.

	   Note that Ettore did not like Nautilus and I had no basis
           for choosing Nautilus.  I liked gnome-fm better, and I
           liked Ettore's indentation style and coding style more
           more than Elliot (just taste wise), so if anything the
           decision to go for Nautilus/C happened without my
           intervention. 

	   No, I did not put a gun in your head. 

	 * Ettore was supposed to continue work on the gnome-vfs, but
           we had assigned him to work on GtkHTML which is an
           essential part of our Evolution product.  GtkHTML hacking
           was taking more time than we had anticipated, so he had to
           work fully on that.

	 * You keep pointing out how Helix Code betrayed Eazel because
           `Ettore was not working on the gnome-vfs'.  Mind you, there
           was no commercial agreement between Helix Code to provide
           any hacking resources to Eazel nor to develop the pieces
           that Eazel needed for its business. 

	 * Then you got very upset that Ettore was not working on the
           gnome-vfs as we had promised.  But the fact was, we did not
           have the resources to fund the development of an Eazel
           product.  Sure, it would have benefited GNOME, but we were
           spending our investors money, and we could not just fund
           any project.

	 * I tried to get a new implementation of the moniker system,
           because I realized how powerful it was.  It took various
           iterations (one included Mathieu and crepes in Paris)
           before we settled for a version of the moniker system that
           worked.

	 * One day, Ettore and Michael got tired of me bitching and
           moaning about the bad Moniker implementation, and got tired
           of listening to how grand monikers could be.  Including the
           fact that Ettore kept saying `I told you' and `I said so
           before'.

	   So they spent two days at the Helix offices discussing the
           issues and they eventually came up with the current design
           that addressed all of our needs, and provided the current
           infrastructure.

Mind you, the GNOME VFS was my idea and as such, I realize how smart
and clever it is.  It is just an async-based version of the
implementation in mc/vfs which was pretty innovative at its time.  So
yes, I did love the GNOME VFS idea, and I am now convinced that the
Moniker approach has more potential for the users. 

So, there we go, this is the recount of the "Conspiracy".  A recount
of the GNOME VFS and Monikers and how `Ettore and Miguel lead you into
a dead end, a trap'.  
 
Miguel.