Re: Module proposal: dconf

[Ryan Lortie <desrt desrt ca>]

On Tue, 2009-10-13 at 13:34 +0200, Rodrigo Moya wrote:
> I think it makes sense to do the migration for all the apps at once.
> Also, the migration from gconf can be done directly from dconf, the
> first time it starts, or even it could be clever enough to synchronize
> changes from gconf every time it starts, to cover apps that migrate to
> dconf later. That would remove the apps' responsibility to do the
> migration, which would be a lot of code to have that in all
> applications. 

I personally think migration is less critical than a lot of people
think.

Here's why (for me at least):

  - I often reinstall my distro when the new release comes out

  - GConf (and GSettings) are not used to store "important" things like
    emails, bookmarks, contacts, cookies, passwords, ...

  - we're changing how our entire desktop looks/feels at the same time
    anyway, so the user will need to reconfigure that stuff (if they
    please)

  - it never takes me more than a few minutes of fiddling to get stuff
    back to "how i like it" in terms of settings.  

  - doing some sort of automated migration encourages application
    developers to base their new settings schemas on the way they did
    things with GConf, rather than giving them a chance to have a 'clean
    break' and take full advantage of the new API (and also remove years
    of cruft).

It certainly makes sense to provide some mechanism for applications
using GConf to continue to function (note: this mechanism might be
"continue using GConf").  For applications that get ported, though,
*shrug*.

I'm open to disagreement on this point :)

Cheers