[gnome-db] getting mergeant to 1.0

[Rodrigo Moya <rodrigo gnome-db org>]

Hi

Now that libgda/libgnomedb 1.0 are out, apart from fixing things on
them, we should now concentrate on getting mergeant to a 1.0 state.

So, since Vivien is being working on libmergeant, I have been thinking
on the UI.

So, several things:

* Vivien, is libmergeant supposed to be used by external apps, or only
by mergeant?

* The current mergeant UI has a lot of problems, so I'd like to take
advantage of the rewrite to think about the UI and try to come up with a
very nice one. Things to take in mind, following GNOME guidelines, are
simplicity, ease of use and, of course, following the HIG.

So, I would like to discuss about several things:

* the UI should be more document oriented, or, IMO, should just not use
a file at all. That is, since we use data sources, it just adds
confusion to have users opening a .mergeant file and then defining a
data source for that file. I think we should just use data sources.

* the icon and label on the main window when no connections are open is
just too ugly. I think mergeant should start by asking the user to
connect to a data source, and just open a new window when the user has
established the connection. 

* since mergeant keeps a lot of info in the file, and if we dont use it,
we could have a private area ($HOME/.mergeant) where all that info is
kept. A sort of cache, but totally transparent to users.

* there should be a clear way to open several data sources. I think we
could have something like galeon/epiphany, which lets you open pages
either in tabs or in new windows. We could have something similar.

* we should think on including some scripting support from the
beginning, so that users can write their own code to manage forms,
reports, etc.

I have been looking at some apps for Mac OS:

FileMaker: http://www.filemaker.com/products/fm_home.html
CocoaMySQL: http://cocoamysql.sourceforge.net/
DBEdit: http://www.rubicode.com/Software/DBEdit/

Things that I've liked:

* In CocoaMySQL, I like the left pane, where there is a combo box to
select the kind of types being displayed. I think a UI like that one for
each tab (each open data source) might look ok. Or, we could use the
Navicat's tree-based UI
(http://www.mysqlstudio.com/img/mac_detail_interface01.jpg). I prefer
myself COCOA's one.

* I found also mysqlbackup
(http://www.simonganiere.ch/dvpt/mysqlbackup.php), which gave me the
idea to provide a way, in the API, to ask providers to do a backup of a
database.

If people can comment on this app, or any other with good UIs, please do
it. I would like to start working on all this (or whatever comes up)
ASAP, so please, comment quick, so that we can take advantage of the 6
months cycle.

cheers