Re: [Fwd: Q: control-center and CORBA]

[Tom Tromey <tromey cygnus com>]

>>>>> "Dietmar" == Dietmar Maurer <dm@vlsivie.tuwien.ac.at> writes:

Dietmar> I don't understand why we need a protocol at all. capplets
Dietmar> are programswith one application window (no menu, no toolbar,
Dietmar> no status bar) and 5 buttons (try, revert, ok, cancel,
Dietmar> help). It's simply not necessary to to communicate with the
Dietmar> control center?

I see it as being driven by a GUI decision.  The control-center
authors wanted this particular GUI, and using CORBA was a reasonable
way to get there while keeping modularity.

If you accept the GUI decision, then this is perfectly reasonable.

Dietmar> Beside that I don't like the user interface of the
Dietmar> control-center. I think we don't need it. Maybe it's better
Dietmar> to use the file manager for this job - Install all capplets
Dietmar> in a separate directory, then invoke the file manager on that
Dietmar> subdir - maybe with a special mode (like in MS-Windows 3.1).

I will note that it is probably possible in theory to write something
like the control-center which works the way you'd like.  If it isn't
possible, I'd suggest making the necessary changes so that it is
possible.  (Disclaimer: I haven't looked at the control-center at all.
I could be totally out to lunch.)

Then the choice could be up to the user.  But I doubt anybody will be
doing this unless you pick it up, hint, hint.

(In a very cool world it would be possible to specify the file manager
to use on a per-directory basis.  This could be done by using CORBA to
look up the appropriate file manager object for a given directory, and
then overriding the choice for magic directories like the control
center.)

Tom