Re: Language bindings on developer.gnome.org

["Curtis C. Hovey" <sinzui cox net>]

On Mon, 2003-07-21 at 03:11, Murray Cumming wrote:
> So add a link from d.g.o if you like.

That at the very least will help a lot of new developers.  We can agree
on that.

> Add an additional page somewhere about GNOME bindings that doesn't
> duplicate the information if you like. But expect it to be removed a
> year from now if it is not up to date.

Ouch!  Well I don't disagree with you.  Out of date language bindings
screams dead project.

> If you just want a list of complete bindings instead of the (impossible)
> detailed list of coverage of every binding then your list will be empty.
> There is not one single language binding that wraps every part of the
> GNOME Platform. 

I know.  Complete binding don't exist anymore (well may never had). 
Here's the rub.  Gnome claims to be language agnostic--it's one of the
selling points when compared to KDE--but it doesn't really live up to
that.  The developers who have worked very hard on gtkmm, Python-gnome,
Ruby-GNOME2, Inti C++, and GTK2-Perl are to be commended.  With GNOME
doing 6 month releases, they can barely keep up.  I see little value in
publishing GNOME 1 bindings, because using those to make a GNOME app
that wont work with the current GNOME platform is pointless.  In
retrospect, my definition of GNOME2, with libs like GNOME-VFS and GConf
is too strict.  

GTK is clearly defined.  It's dependencies provide a good measure of
what needs to be wrapped.  There are very good bindings for GTK2. 
Getting a complete set of GTK2 binding is a big hurdle.  GNOME2
requirements are ambiguous and I think many developers who are inclined
to make bindings can't even judge what constitutes GNOME2, there is no
measure to say they have done a good job.

So to the issue at hand, we really do need something about language
bindings in the d.g.o.  A link to the GTK binding page for sure.  I do
not want to duplicate your effort, nor do I want to confuse or frustrate
the creators of the bindings by asking them to report there developments
to me and you.  But we need to communicate that just because a developer
can make an app using a GTK2 binding doesn't mean they are making a
GNOME2 app.  I would like a small table that indicates what libs are
crucial for integrating with the desktop, and what language provide
that, but I may be asking for too much.  The issue of what really
constitutes a GNOME2 app is a desktop-devel discussion.

-- 
__C U R T I S  C.  H O V E Y____________________
sinzui cox net
Guilty of stealing everything I am.