DConf configuration system

[Joerg Barfurth]

Hi,

Dave Cridland wrote:
> On Wed Apr  6 23:24:25 2005, Chris Lee wrote:

>> Let me explain. Not only would DConf be useless duplication of 
>> existing effort, but evangelizing it to different projects - including 
>> KDE and GNOME, not to mention OpenOffice.org and Mozilla and XFCE and 
>> ... - would take time, and effort, and the net result is that even 
>> *if* everyone adopted this cracktastic great new configuration system 
>> (which won't happen) they gain no major benefit from it. This won't 
>> help them work on Windows, or OS X.
>>

> No, I don't think a shared config system *is* a duplication of effort. 
> Currently, a third party app cannot possibly know which of the many 
> crack-induced configuration systems are in use. A single point of entry, 
> a shared configuration namespace, etc - these are important things for 
> those of us who use our desktops, and don't just religiously use one set 
> of approved applications.
> 

I fully agree.

The main goals to me are:
1) allow to use the same administration infrastructure with either 
desktop (and desktop-independent apps)
2) allow sharing configuration (where applicable) between desktops in 
multi-desktop environments
3) provide a desktop-neutral API to this systems, to which all 
applications (at least all that are not part of one particlar desktop) 
can be written

> Maybe Mozilla uses D-Conf - so what if they have to do different things 
> on Windows or Mac OS X? If a cross-platform app happens to have a single 
> place to get preferences from on free desktops, that's *got* to be a 
> better situation than exists now.
> 

Both mozilla and OpenOffice.org don't use the 'native' configuration 
system (Windows Registry) on Windows. At least OOo doesn't use anything 
native on OS X either (yet). For crossplattform apps it is important to 
do as much as possible in a crossplattform way. Thus it would be highly 
desirable, if D-Conf could be ported to Windows (and OS X) as well.

> Yes, yes, I know UniConf exists, but what I don't know is if it's being 
> used. And there's no way for Mozilla to tell. A single, well-specified, 
> entry point to "the configuration" is needed, and vital.
> 

Agreed

Ciao, Joerg

-- 
Joerg Barfurth              Sun Microsystems - Desktop - Hamburg
 >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> using std::disclaimer <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Software Engineer                         joerg.barfurth at sun.com
OpenOffice.org Configuration          http://util.openoffice.org