Re: Platform

[Brian Cameron <Brian Cameron Sun COM>]

Shaun:

Shouldn't GStreamer be included for media support?  If not
in the Platform, then at least Recommended?

Also, what about gvfs, libdaemon, and libunique?

Brian


On 05/05/09 14:05, Shaun McCance wrote:
> Hey folks,
>
> I'm taking a hard look at the Platform Overview and how we
> can improve our message to ISDs through better documentation.
> Our release sets, unfortunately, don't really reflect what we
> really recommend to developers.  That role has more or less
> been delegated to the Platform Overview.
>
> The problem is that what's in the Platform Overview is based
> entirely on what I happened to think was worth mentioning at
> some point.  I should not be the arbiter of our platform.
>
> I would like to get people's opinions on what technologies
> we should be pushing.  I'm interested both in the here and
> now and in what people think the Gnome 3 message should be.
>
> I've organized my thoughts into three categories: Platform
> contains technologies that are currently in our Developer
> Platform release; Recommended contains thing that we seem
> to agree we should push, but are either in the Desktop
> release or just in our external dependencies; and Others
> contains stuff that I think is cool and could be part of
> our core offering some time in the indeterminate future.
>
> The list is what came to mind as I was writing this email.
> Please feel free to discuss libraries I forgot.
>
>
> Platform
> ========
>
> GTK+ -- The core of how we make graphical applications.
>
> Pango -- Internationalized text rendering system.  You
> love it and you know it.
>
> GLib -- The foundation for pretty much everything we do.
>
> GIO -- Part of GLib, but worth a separate mention in the
> Platform Overview.
>
> GConf -- Configuration system.  There is talk of a new
> system (see below).  But I think it's obvious that we need
> to be pushing something here.  So as long as GConf is what
> we have, it's what we push.
>
> ATK -- Accessibility toolkit.  Used by GTK+.  Should be
> used by anything else that does UIs.
>
>
> Recommended
> ===========
>
> Cairo -- Incredible drawing library, used by GTK+.  There
> seems to be general agreement that developers should use
> Cairo when they need to do custom drawing.
>
> GStreamer -- All things multimedia.  I don't think there's
> any argument against GStreamer being the Gnome-blessed way
> to do multimedia.
>
> D-Bus -- Inter-process messaging system.  Lots of stuff is
> built on it.  How much do we want to push it directly?
>
> Avahi -- Service discovery.  This is used in quite a few
> places.  I know some people in the past had talked about
> having a simple wrapper in GLib.  How much do we push it?
>
> gnome-keyring -- Storing passwords and other secrets.  I
> think this is an important thing to offer ISDs, but this
> seems to be languishing as a desktop-only thing.
>
> evolution-data-server -- Address book and calendaring.
> I've seen half a dozen projects come and go that aim to
> augment or replace e-d-s.  We seem to like the idea, but
> I'm not sure we all love the implementation.
>
> libsoup -- HTTP library.  Honestly, HTTP is such a core
> thing these days, we need to offer something.  Everybody
> seems generally happy with libsoup in general.  Should it
> be in the Platform?  Should its functionality just live
> in GLib alongside fancy new networking stuff?
>
> libxml2/libxslt -- We put these into the external deps
> a couple release cycles back.  Do we want to continue
> pushing them as part of our platform?
>
>
> Others
> ======
>
> GSettings -- GConf replacement to live in GLib.
>
> Telepathy -- Instant messaging and beyond.  I think
> there is a lot of really cool potential here.
>
> Libchamplain -- Wicked cool mapping library.  This is
> not something I would have thought of as something we
> need to offer.  But now that it's here, it's a really
> compelling technology with a lot of potential.
>
> Clutter -- Are we actively embracing Clutter, or is it
> just something we're OK with people using?  The message
> is unclear.
>
> Tracker -- I don't think we can afford to be without a
> search system.  This isn't just about having file search
> as a feature.  It's about providing something that ISDs
> can leverage to make their applications better.
>
> GNIO -- Networking library for GLib.
>
> WebKit -- More and more applications are finding uses
> for an embedded HTML rendering widget.  I think we need
> to provide one with a solid API.  WebKit seems to be the
> direction people are heading in.
>
> Various D-Bus services and APIs -- DeviceKit, PolicyKit,
> ConsoleKit, I think there's something for power management,
> etc.  Are these things we expect applications developers
> to use directly?  What's our message?
>
>
> All right, that's what's come to mind so far.  I'd also
> like to discuss what we're pushing on the mobile front,
> but that's another can of worms.
>
> I'm really curious to hear what the community thinks.
>
> Thanks,
> Shaun
>
>
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