Re: GTop CORBA ideas (was Re: GNOME CVS: gnome-utils martin)

[Elliot Lee <sopwith redhat com>]

On 8 Sep 1998, Martin Baulig wrote:

> Elliot Lee <sopwith@redhat.com> writes:
> 
> > I think I am going to have to write a "when not to use CORBA" paper :-)
> 
> Well, I wanted to export the inner working of GTop through CORBA - my main
> idea was to have some GTop_Applets that can be used as a GTopWidget
> (subclassed from GtkWidget) like this:
...
>                                       * * *
> 
> Well, I just started with my CORBA exeriments, but there is already some working
> code in GTop (tag: GNOME_CORBA_BRANCH) - there's a servant for the `gtop' object
> (only works with a single applet at the moment), a very simple `hello world'
> applet and a sample client - all in the `test' directory.

If you're doing this just for the sake of learning CORBA, and don't plan
in taking it much farther than that, then I say go for it! (and ignore
everything below, because it makes the assumption that this isn't the case
:-) 

That said, I think it's a bad idea as far as being put out in a program
for end users to use:

- There is no reason to make gtop applets at all. People run gtop to see
system status, and there is a clearly defined set of information that can
be presented. That means there's no need to add the extra bloat of applets
that will not add much new functionality. If people want to add a new
display of information, the source code for gtop is there for the hacking.

- Even if there was a need for applets, they would need to be very
lightweight ones. It would make more sense to use shared objects and
libgmodule than CORBA.

- Even if you did need to use CORBA, your CORBA interface is very similar
to the panel's one. Instead of inventing a new interface, you could just
implement a subset of the existing panel interface.

CORBA is a good idea when programs need to export a high-level interface
to a piece of data.

It's not such a great idea as a way of modularizing programs, which is
what your applets would basically doing for gtop. "They are all using the
same data, so for efficiency they should be in the same program, and
modularization should be done inside the program" is what I'm trying to
get at.

Perhaps I would be more convinced if you explained (a) why gtop needs
applets (b) what functionality these applets will provide and how they fit
in with gtop the program (c) why it should be done through CORBA instead
of directly in gtop. 

Hope this helps,
-- Elliot
Progress (n.): The process through which Usenet has evolved from smart
people in front of dumb terminals to dumb people in front of smart
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