Re: patch to vino 2.12.0 to remove gconf dependency

[Jani Monoses <jani monoses gmail com>]

Hello

any patch that tries to reduce the footprint of Gnome apps while
retaining their functionality is a good contribution as long as it is
not a hack ;)

Most of the times it is harder to make the changes clean and
maintainable than simply finding the places that need rewriting or
placing the ifdefs. For distributors to use this, it should not incur
extra maintenance burden.

For the specific vino patch you sent

* work on the most recent version (2.13.X I think) even if in this case
they may be the same if vino is not actively maintained
* split in smaller and self-contained patches. This is too often
repeated but it really matters especially if the maintainer you are
targeting is busy.
* better than using ifdefs try to see if there are non-gnome libraries
which can replace the functionality you compiled out. This way there is
no need for conditional compilation and two binaries built from the same
source (an easy one here is to replace the deprecated gnome_icon with
gtk_icon, and that should get rid of the libgnomeui dep. A much harder
one may be to see if bonobo usage can be replaced by dbus or entirely
eliminated)
* if not all gnome APIs are replaceable, only then resort to ifdefs in
which case they have to be named appropriately
* gconf is not the biggest issue here, it's a small dependency compared
to bonobo/libgnomeui, not to mention that using an entirely new and
incompatible config format for vino may not be a good idea at this stage

> As this may be of interest to those integrating vino into a non-gnome
> (esp. non-gnome, but gtk based) desktops or distros, I'm copying this to
> the xfce and (x)ubuntu lists.

I removed the xfce and ubuntu lists from Cc as this is not on topic
there even if there may be interest; in that case the interested people
should be subscribed here ;). Besides, I think it actually decreases the
chances of you being answered, as everyone will think someone on the
other lists will, especially when the subject is not a new shiny feature
but the boring and inconvenient issue of keeping the memory usage low.

Disclaimer: I am not related to vino or Gnome in any way so you may want
to wait for someone more authoritative to answer, but I am interested in
such changes that make Gnome apps lighter.

Jani