Re: Using static types from a GTypeModule

[Alberto Mardegan <mardy users sourceforge net>]

ext Tim Janik wrote:
> in your case, it sounds like your plugin loads the gtk library
> on demand, so it gets unloaded once your plugin is unloaded.
> if that is the case, fix your code so Gtk+ never gets unloaded
> (usually it's best to have the application link against Gtk+,
> so dynamic plugins can rely on it being present instead of
> pulling it in).

Yes, I tend to agree that Gtk+ case is rather specific and that usually 
the whole application links with Gtk+, so there are no real problem there.
Still, the point applies to other libraries, such as DBus-glib (it uses 
g_boxed_type_register_static()) or any library which registers any 
static GType: the application cannot know what libraries the plugins are 
linked to, and in most cases even if it new, it wouldn't want to keep 
the libraries loaded when they are unneeded.

For applications which are running all the time and make an intensive 
use of module plugins, like the Hildon desktop, the waste of resources 
can become considerable.

I'm not convinced that the solution is to convert all libraries using 
static types need to use dynamic types -- I'd rather have some 
workaround in glib.
What about allowing g_type_register_static() to overwrite the previous 
existing type when asked to re-register an already known type, instead 
of failing?

It doesn't sound a clean solution at all, but...

Ciao,
  Alberto

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