gnome-filer UPDATE/Freeze, was Re: Gnome Database Kit

[Michael Fulbright <msf redhat com>]

Since there has been all this ODBC/DB discussion, I wanted to let people
know where I was with gnome-filer and what I was planning on doing.

My primary motivation was to provide a tool for people to create a database
via a GUI interface, and to create entry/query forms tied to the database
via a gnome_canvas interface. My final goal is to provide PostScript
report generation to fit on labels (paper with sticky stuff on back). This
will be trickiest since you need something like display postscript, or
else something clever in its place.

_At_this_time_ I really do not want to support more than postgresql and a 
flat text database backends at the moment. I looked at the freeodbc stuff 
and it wasn't clear to me any of it was easily available.  Red Hat ships with 
postgresql, so I wanted gnome-filer to work with it out of the box for 
ppmaximum user convenience.

I am not at all against gnome-filer working as a front-end for ODBC interfaced
databases. At the moment, however, I am working on pilot integration with
GNOME and can't work on gnome-filer for a few weeks. I had to stop in the
middle of development and I'd like to keep it static until I can look
at it again, and think about how I wanted to do a few things internally.

If people find the GUI code useful, by all means use it in your project
however it best serves you. I just ask that no one modify the gnome-filer
sources until I have a chance to get back to it. If you have suggestions for
the gnome-filer code feel free to mail me at msf@redhat.com

Thanks
Dr Mike