Re: wxWindows and GNOME

[bob cs csoft net]

On Sat, 28 Aug 1999, Havoc Pennington wrote:

> 
> On Sat, 28 Aug 1999 bob@cs.csoft.net wrote:
> > Arrg. 
> > So when you open a gnome file dialog, the filesystem might look different
> > from getting a directory listing from the console or a non gnome program.
> > How confusing.
> > 
> > I know some of the reasons for having a vfs, but the major drawback is all
> > programs cant use the code. A program has to be modified to use it.
> >
> 
> That is just life. Sorry, but we can't make Unix usable without making
> some old programs look sucky. :-) 
>  
> > I have been thinking about it for a while and may have come up with a way
> > to make it work with all programs. 
> 
> Requiring glibc or tacking weird junk on the end of files would both break
> old programs _and_ suck in countless other ways. There are several huge
> threads about metadata in the archives; it's been discussed into the
> ground and we reached a rough consensus that the current way will work
> best. No point worrying about it again.

It would only require glibc to be able to use http as a filesystem. Not so
bad a thing. All other programs will still work without it. Plus it will
premote using glibc.

Having to modify all old programs (Wich is every current program.
Freshmeat has 4743 in its appindex) to gain features that could be easily
folded into glibc wich would allow the programs to run without
modification seems like alot of work.

And appending data should not break older programs. It will only break
programs that do not read the file correctly. There should not be too many
of those. I have spent too much time trying to fix mac based metadata
problems. It could be a very big headach if not done correctly.

The current metadata implamentation is good for non important metadata. As
soon as important metadata is placed in it, we will start having some big
problems. Look at the mac for some good examples. We need a method for
storing important metadata as well.

 > 
> Havoc
> 
>