Re: Thumbnailing service project; opinions, suggestions?

[Philip Van Hoof <spam pvanhoof be>]

On Tue, 2009-10-20 at 16:34 +0200, Mark wrote:
> >> I do miss some vital parts:
> >> - Designing the daemon and plugin architecture
> >> - Making those 2
> >>
> >> That's what i see missing now but i probably missed a few other parts.

> > What does "Making those 2" mean? [CUT]

> 1. designing a daemon

With a specialized thumbnailer for PDF thumbnails you'll be designing a
daemon.

> 2. designing a plugin architecture

I don't know what that means anyway. A plugin "architecture" can mean:

- Registering yourself to a DBus service, so that it knows about your
  existence and can delegate work to you. This is what a specialized
  thumbnailer is wrt Tumbler. You could see such a thumbnailer as a
  plugin for Tumbler (or any other thumbnail service).

- Implementing an interface in Java or .NET, or implementing Event
  handlers in .NET, or anonymous classes in Java, or delegates in C#,
  that provide functionality that a core application doesn't have and
  that you provide dynamically by installing an assembly (or .class
  file, in Java) somewhere "on demand".

- Making a struct with a bunch of function pointers that you return at a
  "get_plugin_info"-like function that you find with dlsym after you
  dlopen a .so file from a core application "on demand". You can also
  use GModule in GLib to make all this a lot more easy.

- etc ...

> 3. making the daemon

With a specialized thumbnailer for PDF thumbnails you'll be making a
daemon.

> 4. making the plugin architecture

Same answer as #2

> .... like that

.... Yes?

> > I think you are just looking for a reason to make your own one. That's
> > you decision of course. It's called NIH, but anyway (I can't and wont
> > stop you from doing that).
> 
> you just don't seem to get the point.

I'm quite afraid that I do get the point ... :-\

> I need to build something from the ground up (making uml, class
> diagrams and such).. and based on that i need to make the actual
> program.

Yes, you could do that for a specialized thumbnailer for PDF thumbnails.

> Tumbler is existing already! i would be making those diagrams based on
> the current inner working which is not the way to go.

There's no specialized thumbnailer for PDF thumbnails (for Tumbler) yet.

> Oke, i know that for each project i start outside of school i don't
> make a design at all or a very simple one and in that case i could
> perfectly help tumbler.

You can help Tumbler by making a specialized thumbnailer that makes PDF
thumbnails, for example.

> That, sadly, isn't the case (which i told you already on irc)

Untrue, specialized thumbnailer that makes PDF thumbnails.

> Just for that reason alone tumbler isn't a fine project for me to join
> in this case.
> Also i would like to learn as much as possible and that is less likely
> to happen if i join tumbler.

Eh? 

I disagree. But oh well.

> I am not looking for reasons to make it all myself.. the requirements
> simple.. require that.

Untrue, I know about your requirements. I read them. And a specialized
thumbnailer, that for example makes PDF thumbnails, fits it perfectly.

> Now can we please quit bashing the idea that there will be 2
> thumbnailing services in a few months time and can i get some
> constructive feedback about the ideas in my first post?

The replies of the people who have replied so far is the constructive
feedback on your first post.

> Can i get the:
> - Git
> - gnome sub domain
> - blog for this project on planet gnome and/or gtk

That's not up to me.

> As said a few times. the outline is right there (in the first post)
> now all i can do is steer some more in one direction or the other. I
> personally would like to steer in the optimizing direction...




-- 
Philip Van Hoof, freelance software developer
home: me at pvanhoof dot be 
gnome: pvanhoof at gnome dot org 
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