Re: GFileMonitor API improvments?

[Martyn Russell <martyn imendio com>]

Bastien Nocera wrote:
> On Mon, 2008-06-16 at 11:45 +0100, Martyn Russell wrote:
>> Hi all,
>>
>> For the Tracker project we need to know certain things when monitoring
>> the file system depending on each backend used (inotify/fam/polling/etc).
> 
> IMO, for something like Tracker, you're better off using the native
> APIs, rather than glib's.

Well, so far, I see no speed impairment using the GIO APIs and while
that is the case, using an API which comes for free, is tested, bug
fixed regularly, etc. is way better than supporting n backends ourself
in Tracker.

> The API in glib will always be the lowest common denominator between
> what's possible on different platforms, and special casing based on the
> backend is bound to create problems.

While I agree in some part here, I also think there is no real problem
with returning 8192 or -1 in an API which requests the maximum number of
monitors, where -1 is whatever the documentation says it means (be it
unlimited, unset, etc).

I can understand that knowing what backend you are using is potentially
very specific to Tracker though.

I should also add, knowing the backend is potentially very important for
mobile & embedded devices, since applications often need efficiencies
which the desktop doesn't and this is very "technology" specific.

-- 
Regards,
Martyn