Re: Gnome-VFS depending on bonobo



On 16 Mar 2004 09:50:31 +0100
Alexander Larsson <alexl redhat com> wrote:

> On Mon, 2004-03-15 at 16:46, Magnus Bergman wrote:
> > On 15 Mar 2004 10:50:51 +0100
> > Alexander Larsson <alexl redhat com> wrote:
> > 
> > > On Fri, 2004-03-12 at 17:01, Magnus Bergman wrote:
> > > > I'm just wondering if there is a good reason for gnome-vfs to
> > > > depend on bonobo and orbit. Gnome-vfs could be very usable in
> > > > many non-desktop programs, like for example a web-server. But
> > > > with it's current dependencies it kind of discourages such
> > > > usage. Would it be much work to reduce the dependencies of the
> > > > gnome-vfs core to, perhaps, only glib?
> > > 
> > > Bonobo (not BonoboUI) and ORBit2 is used for the gnome-vfs daemon
> > > communication, as well as for GConf.
> > 
> > If I have understood this correctly the daemon is used for caching
> > stateful connections, right? If I don't need that, would it be
> > possible to build without Bonobo and ORBit? If not, is a patch that
> > makes it possible likely to be accepted?
> 
> Its also used for the volume monitor system, and we're hoping to use
> it for more things in the future (e.g. metadata server, etc). Leaving
> it out will give you a gnome-vfs that is not useful for the Gnome
> desktop. I'm not interested in supporting a version of gnome-vfs that
> will break users desktops when installed, but you're free to patch
> your own version and remove the parts you don't want.

Fair enough. But just to make sure we understand each other correctly. I
don't suggest than any code needs to be changed, just that some features
(and their dependencies) could be optional at compile time, and default
to build exactly as it does now. But you feel this is to officially
support crippled versions to exist, right?

> > I currently use Gnome-VFS for two separate thing. Mime-type
> > detection(in a plug-in to a server application) and as a glue
> > application applications and custom VFS modules. Perhaps it would be
> > a good idea to split these functionalities into different packages?
> 
> For mime detection, maybe you should take a look at the xdgmime
> package that gnome-vfs now uses (as a cut-n-paste) to look up mime
> types. Its small and easy to embedd in any app.

Thanks. I'll take a look at that.

> > And by the way I am well aware that there is nothing
> > desktop-specific about Bonobo. But the thing is many developers
> > (server application developers not the least) consider Bonobo, ORBit
> > and such to be unnecessary "gnome bloat" and therefore hesitate to
> > make use of very handy packages like Gnome-VFS.
> 
> Its needed for features that are critical for the desktop, so we use
> it.(Actually we just need *some* IPC method, but Bonobo/ORBit is the
> current IPC method used in Gnome). I'm aware that some people dislike
> having extra dependencies and would like to cherry-pick Gnome
> libraries for just what they need. However, we're trying to create a
> coherent framework for desktop application development. We can't keep
> crippling or duplicating modules all over just because someone only
> want to use a small part of the framework.

I have nothing against extra dependencies, not at all. Duplicating
modules is of course evil. The goal should be to environment as a whole
as lean as possible, I think. But if those extra dependencies are left
completely unused in the runtime environment it's kind of unnecessary.

I think it's possible cherry-pick features from the gnome libraries to a
large extent as it is. But why not improve that possibility?



[Date Prev][Date Next]   [Thread Prev][Thread Next]   [Thread Index] [Date Index] [Author Index]