Re: [gnome-love] interested in implementing a (the) newsreader for Gnome?

[Sean Middleditch <elanthis awesomeplay com>]

On Fri, 2004-09-17 at 11:41 -0700, Alan Bailward wrote:
> On Thu, 2004-09-16 at 15:20 +0300, Toni Willberg wrote:
> > Also, I'd like the future client to use some external nntp library.
> > Afaik Pan uses something self-implemented.
> >
> > A good candidate for the NNTP library would be libEtPan
> > (http://libetpan.sourceforge.net/). The NNTP part doesn't seem to be
> > very well documented, but I've used the SMTP/IMAP parts of it and
> > found
> > them to be very good.
>
> Just out of interest why have the client use an external library?  Right

Because that's a lot smarter than reinventing the wheel (and thereby
wasting developer time and resources) for no reason other than the NIH
Syndrome.

> now the number of modules needed in gnome is huge, and you don't want it
> to get bigger. 

Yes, because rewriting existing code and making the existing modules
bloat needlessly to include code that really doesn't need to be included
is such a better situation.

If an external library makes implementing the client easier, and thus
helps result in a more stable and correct client, then the developer
should be encouraged 100% to use the external library.

That said, including a library for sending mail _is_ bloat, because we
already have a standard module in GNOME 2.8 for handling all mail:
evolution-data-server.

I would argue that it'd be far more useful to add NNTP support to e-d-s
(even if that means using an external high quality NNTP library).  That
way you can still have a separate frontend/UI just for news, also have a
UI in Evolution (if that's what you want), and any other applications
can also hook into e-d-s and get all the functionality there-in.  You'd
also get the address book and presence stuff working basically for free,
which makes a helluva lot of sense.

-- 
Sean Middleditch <elanthis awesomeplay com>
AwesomePlay Productions, Inc.