Re: Gnome Status and Future.

[Miguel de Icaza <miguel gnu org>]

>  I have learned a few from Havoc's book, like gless, gtktext, 
> gtkxmhtml...
> 
>  I hear now about gdkpixbuf. So is this going to be a new canvas we 
> should wait for or not?

Gdk-Pixbuf is just a new library for loading images and rendering them
on the screen.  This is a replacement for Imlib: it provides a saner
API, and preserves the alpha channel (unlike Imlib which threw it
away).

It integrates with the GNOME Canvas trough a new canvas item (instead
of using a gnome_canvas_image_get_type (), use a
gnome_canvas_pixbuf_get_type () when you create the image).

>  A list of all to-disappear (or to be rewritten) from next release of 
> gnome should be given and updated!

Imlib is pretty much the major thing that is going away;  But I will
post a detailed list of APIs that will be considered "deprecated",
altough all of the API calls from gnome-libs-1 will be available by
using the --compat switch to gnome-config. 

It is very important to note that applications will be source
compatible in gnome-libs-2;  The worst case scenario is that you will
have to add to the Makefile "--compat" when you invoke gnome-config,
that is all.

Internally, all the Imlib calls will be mapped to GdkPixbuf calls, so
you can still use the old API, but you will get better results. 

>  This can all be done in a Gnome-quarterly, bimonthly, or monthly 
> report so that folks who write apps (like your humbly) know what not 
> support in their apps. I am not in a rush to know everything. It is 
> just that I don't want to spend 3 weeks figuring something out that 
> will disappear in the next release (or be completely re-written).

Completely understood, and we are aware of this.

>  You do the core work, and others (including me) do the satellite apps 
> thing in coordination which does not necessarly mean that I will take 
> part in the architecture design part (I'd be totally incompetent).

Agreed, I will assemble this detailed report for people to keep track
of and put it on developer.gnome.org as well.

Best wishes,
Miguel.