Re: it's scary

[Maciej Stachowiak <mjs eazel com>]

Miguel de Icaza <miguel@helixcode.com> writes:

> Another thing:
> 
>    Using Bonobo is extremely simple.  You want to create a control and
> embedd it?  Look at the sample code, and you will be amazed at its
> simplicity.  It can't get easier than that.
> 
>    Under the cover, it is doing object activation, sharing of a single
> code base between multiple applications, activation, property
> configuration, provides a way to talk to the component and a lot more.

Bonobo is extremely simple to use for simple things, due to the
excellent GtkObject wrappers. Unfortunately, the complexity level
rises pretty quickly if you want to do anything vaguely
complicated. For instance, using query_interface at all exposes the
CORB_Object level; there's really nothing sensible it can return but a
CORBA_Object. So you have to know what the proper GtkObject wrapper is
yourself, and do the wrapping manually.

Worse yet, you have to worry about all the different kinds of
refcounting - bonobo_object_ref, Bonobo_Unknown_ref and
CORBA_Object_duplicate. This can be confusing to users.

As I've said before, I think a GtkObject idl mapping would mitigate
this, but I should shut up and put my code where my mouth is.

 - Maciej