Re: Gnome canvas: should it be part of gtk+?

[Havoc Pennington <hp Mcs Net>]

On Mon, 1 Mar 1999, Jason Tackaberry wrote:
> Please forgive me if this is a FAQ.  Just ignore me if it is. :)
> 
> But my question is why is the canvas part of Gnome and not gtk+?  I'm sure
> there are good reasons why it is part of the gnome API, I just don't know
> any of them.  Please enlighten me. :)
> 

Why is anything part of Gnome and not Gtk?  

Some common reasons:

 - something is too "experimental" for Gtk
 - something is too "big" or "bloated" for Gtk (note that Canvas 
   requires libart_lgpl and is quite large in itself)
 - something sets too much policy, for example by using the Gnome
   pixmaps, or enforcing the GnomeApp structure
 - something assumes Unix and/or the desktop environment, for 
   example by using metadata or saving dotfiles
 - things that use ORBit or Imlib can't be in Gtk
 
Also, we want people to use Gnome and so we like to have cool features in 
Gnome.

When it comes down to it though much of the Gtk/Gnome division is
historical accident, perhaps with a bit of retrospective rationale.

IMO it should make no difference now that gnome-libs is stable, most
Unix-only apps can just use Gnome if they want Gnome features. The
libraries do not require the desktop to be running and they save quite a
bit of time and result in a nicer application.

Havoc