Re: [Rhythmbox-devel] Central plugin repository

[Alexandre <airmind gmail com>]

> 1 - it's implemented through C#/Mono, thus it will not make in any GNOME official release (like happens for Banshee, Beagle and Tomboy, please remember also that it was said to be released as a GNOME component for 2.16 almost 2 years ago, no more news available about an official inclusion);

2 - No real application is basing it's own extension management on it, even Deskbar, which Capuchin was developed for initially, isn't actually using it;

Deskbar in version 2.24 will support Capuchin (http://live.gnome.org/DeskbarApplet/RoadMap?highlight=%28capuchin%29).
Maybe Gnome wont include Mono as a dependency, but most distros do. I see no problem in using it as an optional, even runtime, dependency. If Capuchin is not availiable, a simple message can be displayed saying what to install.

3 - It's a daemon (???? why do we need to have an additional system service running in background? just to be notified when a new plug-in release is available? just do it the Firefox way, notify the user when an app is started about new releases of plug-ins related to that specific app);

Capuchin doesnt notify the user for updates, the application does that. Capuchin handles how to check for updates, and presents the application a simple list of updated and new plugins.
The application chooses when to check for updates, and when and how to show it to the user.
 

4 - It's not (and will never be, see point 1) a standard throughout Rhythmbox's user base, while Rhythmbox itself is adopted by all it's users for definition ;

It wont be a standard to those that dont have Capuchin. Ubuntu (and others) include applications that are not part of the Gnome distribution, including Tomboy, written in Mono.
 

5 - It doesn't manage different sets of packages from the same repository (and, as Charlotte pointed out, it should be possible for the user to install alpha/beta plugs and finished ones separately, it would be good for testing purposes too)

This can be done in Capuchin. It is simply a matter of having multiple repositories, one for each category. A simple web-page can generate these repositories automatically. And an option could show which repository to load, or even which version of each plugin to install.
But I dont think there would be many alpha/beta versions. Plugins usually have a short life cycle, there is usually no stable/unstable branches.

So of course you could implement all of this in your own plugin, but if the code is already there, and is already working, we could use that, save ourself some work, and contribute to a more integrated desktop. I would prefer much more if all applications used a standard in this situation.

-- 
Alexandre Rosenfeld 

EngComp 06 - USP São Carlos