GSettings child schemas

[Geert Janssens <info kobaltwit be>]

Hi,

I'm working on replacing GConf with GSettings in the GnuCash 
application. I have read through the GSettings reference documentation 
and migration guide. With that I think I can mostly manage the 
conversion in the code.

I'm unsure about the schema conversion though. I used 
gsettings-schema-convert to automatically generate GSettings compatible 
schemas from the existing GConf schemas. I notice that for some schemas 
the conversion tool decided to generate schemas with child schemas.

For example, after conversion I have these two schemas defined:
<schema id="org.gnucash.general" path="/aps/gnucash/general/">
<schema id="org.gnucash.general.register" 
path="/apps/gnucash/general/register/">

(Note: I'm aware I should not use the apps for path, but this is only 
temporary during the conversion.)

The second schema is marked as a child schema of the first one.

Yet due to the way our GConf schemas were organized I also have these 
two schemas:
<schema id="org.gnucash.dialogs" path="/aps/gnucash/dialogs/">
<schema id="org.gnucash.dialogs.sxs" 
path="/apps/gnucash/dialogs/scheduled_trans/">

And while they also share the same path and id prefix, the second is 
*not* marked as a child schema.

I found the GSettings documentation very thin on the rationale behind 
child schemas and hence I have no idea about what would be best practise 
here.

Should I attempt to make the schema hierarchy complete, mark schemas as 
children of others wherever I can ?
Is it illegal to have two schemas of which one is  in a subpath of the 
other without it being a child schema ?
What benefit do I get from defining child schemas ?

Any advice here would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Geert