Re: [gnome-db] [mergeant] Status ?

[Rodrigo Moya <rodrigo gnome-db org>]

On Wed, 2004-01-21 at 11:32 +0100, Vivien wrote:
> > On Wed, 2004-01-21 at 09:19 +0100, Vivien wrote:
> >> > Vivien wrote:
> >> >
> >> >>>Next number will be 1.0.0 :-)
> >> >>
> >> >> There is still quite a lot of work before 1.0.0!
> >> >>
> >> >
> >> > Is there a roadmap ?
> >> > I found
> >> > http://mail.gnome.org/archives/gnome-db-list/2003-June/msg00067.html
> >> > but can't understand purpose of libmergeant vs. libgnomedb
> >>
> >> Libgnomedb provides widgets on top of libgda; libmergeant uses
> >> libgnomedb
> >> and also provides widgets (form, grid, etc) but they are more powerfull,
> >> and the big drawback is that they require a data dictionnary and they
> >> consume more memory. Depending on what an application has to do, it may
> >> be
> >> wiser to use libgnomedb's widgets or libmergeant's widgets.
> >>
> >> For instance the libgnomedb's form widget works with a GdaDataModel and
> >> lets the programmer display data contained within the data model. AFAIK,
> >> it does not allow direct editing of the displayed data,
> >>
> > it is going to allow it for 1.2.
> 
> Great, however, I believe that for complex data sets, the library needs to
> 'understand' the database structure (foreign keys, data types, etc) and
> requires a dictionnary. So it's good if libgnomedb can do many things
> without a dictionnary, and keep the usage of libmergeant for more complex
> situations.

> >
> >> At one point in the future, it is possible that these two libraries
> >> merge,
> >> but for now they are separate.
> >>
> > I think the long term plan would be to have only one library for all.
> >
> 
> One for all the UI stuff, yes; keeping libgda small and efficient for non
> UI applications is IMO a plus.
> 
yes, right, libgda should be kept small, as it is today. But for the UI,
not now, but at a later time (post mergeant-1.0?) we should think about
merging the two libraries. There could be the simple cases, as libgnomed
is now, and, apart from that, a data dictionary widget(s), which is what
is in mergeant now. I'm not saying to remove one or the other, but to
merge them in one UI library.

In fact, what is preventing us from doing that now, for libgnomedb 1.2?
We could just merge the current libmergeant into libgnomedb, would that
be ok at this point?

cheers