Re: dbus and GNOME 2.8

[Rodrigo Moya <rodrigo gnome-db org>]

On Mon, 2004-04-05 at 17:36 +0100, jamie wrote:
> On Mon, 2004-04-05 at 16:58, Paolo Maggi wrote:
> > On Mon, 2004-04-05 at 17:25, Gustavo J. A. M. Carneiro wrote:
> > > A Seg, 2004-04-05 ās 14:25, Paolo Maggi escreveu:
> > > > Hi guys,
> > > > 	as I wrote in
> > > > http://mail.gnome.org/archives/desktop-devel-list/2004-January/msg00495.html
> > > > I'm working on a new implementation and a new API for egg-recent that I
> > > > hope to have ready in time for 2.7.0 or 2.7.1 so that it can be
> > > > evaluated for inclusion in 2.8.
> > > 
> > >   BTW, is there a reason why recent files isn't just a gconf key?
> > > 
> > >   Regards,
> > 
> > >From http://www.gnome.org/projects/gconf/ :
> > 
> > "Do not store anything but preferences in GConf. Documents, session
> > state, random data blobs do not belong in GConf. Stuff breaks if you do
> > this. Moreover, THERE IS NO GUARANTEE THAT IT'S EVEN POSSIBLE TO WRITE
> > TO THE GCONF DATABASE. Which means you may not use GConf as an IPC
> > mechanism or when it's required to be able to store a piece of data."
> > 
> > Ciao,
> > Paolo
> 
> Isn't it about time Gnome adopted and standardised on an RDBMS to help
> solve all these data storage problems?
> 
> Whilst we are going to end up with an RDBMS anyhow cause Gnome Storage
> will use one, it makes sense to have one available for all desktop apps
> and services especially as it will save a hell of a lot of coding and
> wasted man hours in developing propriety storage dumps and associated
> IPC access mechanisms (I wonder how much development time could have
> been saved if Evolution Data Server used an RDBMS?). 
> 
the problem with using RDBMS is that you impose on users the obligation
of having it installed before using the app. For some RDBMS (like
PostgreSQL, for instance) while not really hard for an advanced user, it
is quite hard for novice users to install it, setup initial permissions,
etc. And installing/running a RDBMS per user seems to not be a good
idea.

> An RDBMS will provide us with security, concurrent access, transactions
> and highly efficient network transparency all for free. It also allows
> thin clients to be developed with the bulk of all business rules being
> implemented as stored procedures and triggers. Gnome-DB already provides
> us with a rich widget set for rapid development of such thin clients and
> thanks to the built in the network transparency, an admin user can
> remotely administer desktops using the same thin clients.
> 
> My preferred RDBMS for the desktop is Firebird (formerly known as
> Interbase but released by Borland as open source under a mozilla style
> license - http://firebird.sourceforge.net).
>
then, you might know about the difficulties that installing Firebird
imposes on a normal desktop user.

I agree with you that storing data in a real database gives a lot of
choices and possibilities. It is the setup part, to be done by all kinds
of users, that worries me. The only chance we have to be using RDBMS in
normal desktop apps is if the RDBMS was tightly integrated into the
distro, like giving automatically access to users when you create them,
creating default databases and permissions, etc.

cheers