[gnome-bindings] GUADEC Language Bindings BOF summary

[James Henstridge <james daa com au>]

Sorry for not posting this summary earlier.

Here are some of the things that were covered during the BOF.  Hopefully
it can spark some discussion on the list.

1) Name of the list.
  Consider changing the list name to language-bindings gnome org
    -- more explicit than just bindings
    -- less likely to scare off people just starting out with gtk bindings
       (it will be on the same server as all the gtk lists)
    -- Will show up in the list of all other gnome lists at
       http://mail.gnome.org/

2) Defs format
  Use of new defs file format proposed by Havoc
    -- most people at the bof agreed that using a common format to
       generate bindings from
    -- format should contain enough information for all language bindings
       (some bindings may wish to ignore some of the info).
    -- some people thought the new format lacked required info
    -- Discussion on list recommended

3) Gtk+ 2.0
    -- will need to cooperate to get good bindings ready for the release
       of gtk+-2.0.
    -- python bindings for 2.0 are fairly far along
    -- documentation on how to write bindings for 2.0 might be useful (I
       have some unfinished docs on this).
    -- check if 2.0 provides all the hooks required to write various
       bindings (I have looked over most of the GObject stuff, and it does
       most things my python bindings need.  Don't know about other
       languages).
    -- use this list to discuss problems with writing 2.0 bindings

4) Documentation
    -- user documentation for bindings?
    -- docs for bindings writers

5) Shared Tools and files
    -- some tasks are common to all language binding build processes
       (eg. creating defs files)
    -- What do people want to share?
    -- Would a repository for these scripts be useful?

We also discussed about setting up a web site.  bindings.gnome.org was the
one Ariel suggested in the program notes.  Maybe a bindings.gtk.org alias
would be useful as well?  The page would probably include information
about various language bindings (web pages, mailing lists and download
locations), and any shared info such as this mailing list and shared
documentation, etc.

James (the python guy :)

-- 
Email: james daa com au
WWW:   http://www.daa.com.au/~james/