[gnome-db] libgda/libgnomedb/gnome-db 0.9.1

[Rodrigo Moya <rodrigo gnome-db org>]

Hi!

As there's some interest in knowing what the GNOME 2 version of
libgda/gnome-db looks like, here's a report.

Note that I'm preparing a development release for people to have a try
at it:

* libgda:
	* everything should compile on a GNOME 2 environment

	* everything is ported to ORBit2, libbonobo2, bonobo-activation,
	  GLib 2.0. So now, libgda is 100% X-indenpendent. You don't
	  need anymore the X/GTK libraries to link your libgda
	  applications

	* all remaining CORBA stuff is being hidden from the API,
	  specially for the GdaField/GdaServerField stuff, which was one
	  of the ugliest API ever seen. Both classes have been merged
	  into a common one, and lots of nice accessor functions have
	  been added, so that now you don't have to deal directly
	  with any CORBA structure
	  Also, the IDL for storing values has been simplified, and
	  a new class, GdaValue, allows an easy management of data
	  types and values. The GdaValue class is very nice in the sense
	  that it can be reused not only for recordset-oriented tasks,
	  so we'll use it to manage values in many places. This also
	  simplifies a lot the implementation of the libgda-client lib
	  and of the providers

	* data models: Brian Jepson proposed, in an article (which is
	  in the docs section in the web site) to have the GNOME-DB
	  widgets accept data not only from GdaRecordsets, but from
	  other sources also. So, to do it, I just added an abstract
	  class (GdaDataModel), and some subclasses (mainly
	  GdaDataModelRecordset, although I'm planning to add soon
	  GdaDataModelList, GdaDataModelArray, etc). This is a very
	  nice feature that I'm really happy with.

	* providers: for the time being, only the default provider
	  compiles, but all the other providers should be compiling
	  very soon. Anyway, as soon as anything else compiles and works
	  ok, I plan to refactor the providers' implementation, to
	  have it more object-oriented, as the rest of the libraries.
	  But this is very low, for the time being, in my TODO list.

	* report engine: I'm simplifying the report IDL, to make it
	  work as soon as possible, even if it does not have all the
	  nice things we want. But, to start with, having it *really*
	  executing reports while we add more features would be nice.
	  So, I'm starting by writing the library that parses the
	  XML format, and then, I'll add the basic functionality to
	  the client/server.

* libgnomedb:

	* has been created to contain just the GNOME-DB widget library

	* does not compile yet. Everything is being ported to GTK 2.0

	* all recordset-oriented widgets are being converted to be based
	  on GdaDataModel's

	* grid widget: I think at last we'll have a nice grid widget,
	  which won't be based anymore on the ugly GtkCList. I'm
	  rewriting this widget to use the GtkTreeView widget. It does
	  not work yet, so I haven't really seen it, but the GtkTreeView
	  widget seems a good way.

* gnome-db:

	* does not compile yet

	* everything is being refactored to contain a merge of some of
	  the current functionality in gnome-db and what is in gASQL.
	  For the moment, I'm just creating 3 components that will be
	  loaded in the shell: export, sql, configuration

so, that's all for the moment

cheers
-- 
Rodrigo Moya <rodrigo gnome-db org> - <rodrigo ximian com>
http://www.gnome-db.org/ - http://www.ximian.com/