Re: Gnome-VFS depending on bonobo

[Alexander Larsson <alexl redhat com>]

On Mon, 2004-03-15 at 16:46, Magnus Bergman wrote:
> On 15 Mar 2004 10:50:51 +0100
> Alexander Larsson <alexl redhat com> wrote:
> 
> > On Fri, 2004-03-12 at 17:01, Magnus Bergman wrote:
> > > I'm just wondering if there is a good reason for gnome-vfs to depend
> > > on bonobo and orbit. Gnome-vfs could be very usable in many
> > > non-desktop programs, like for example a web-server. But with it's
> > > current dependencies it kind of discourages such usage. Would it be
> > > much work to reduce the dependencies of the gnome-vfs core to,
> > > perhaps, only glib?
> > 
> > Bonobo (not BonoboUI) and ORBit2 is used for the gnome-vfs daemon
> > communication, as well as for GConf.
> 
> If I have understood this correctly the daemon is used for caching
> stateful connections, right? If I don't need that, would it be possible
> to build without Bonobo and ORBit? If not, is a patch that makes it
> possible likely to be accepted?

Its also used for the volume monitor system, and we're hoping to use it
for more things in the future (e.g. metadata server, etc). Leaving it
out will give you a gnome-vfs that is not useful for the Gnome desktop.
I'm not interested in supporting a version of gnome-vfs that will break
users desktops when installed, but you're free to patch your own version
and remove the parts you don't want.

> I currently use Gnome-VFS for two separate thing. Mime-type detection
> (in a plug-in to a server application) and as a glue application
> applications and custom VFS modules. Perhaps it would be a good idea to
> split these functionalities into different packages?

For mime detection, maybe you should take a look at the xdgmime package
that gnome-vfs now uses (as a cut-n-paste) to look up mime types. Its
small and easy to embedd in any app.

> And by the way I am well aware that there is nothing desktop-specific
> about Bonobo. But the thing is many developers (server application
> developers not the least) consider Bonobo, ORBit and such to be
> unnecessary "gnome bloat" and therefore hesitate to make use of very
> handy packages like Gnome-VFS.

Its needed for features that are critical for the desktop, so we use it.
(Actually we just need *some* IPC method, but Bonobo/ORBit is the
current IPC method used in Gnome). I'm aware that some people dislike
having extra dependencies and would like to cherry-pick Gnome libraries
for just what they need. However, we're trying to create a coherent
framework for desktop application development. We can't keep crippling
or duplicating modules all over just because someone only want to use a
small part of the framework.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
 Alexander Larsson                                            Red Hat, Inc 
                   alexl redhat com    alla lysator liu se 
He's an immortal hunchbacked waffle chef who must take medication to keep him 
sane. She's a cynical mutant pearl diver trying to make a difference in a 
man's world. They fight crime!