Proposal and RFC: Introducing DAL, the "Desktop Abstraction Layer"

[John (J5) Palmieri]

On Thu, 2005-01-13 at 09:24, Marcin Krzyzanowski wrote:
> Użytkownik John (J5) Palmieri napisał:
> > On Thu, 2005-01-13 at 05:38, Ikke wrote:
> > 
> >>Hi xdg list members,
> >>
> >>Last days I've been thinking of desktop integration on the Linux/...
> >>desktop. Not limited to Gnome OR KDE OR whatever more, but
> >>desktop-neutral application integration.
> >>
> >>I started thinking about this issue after I wanted to write some code
> >>that enables me to get the "Away" state in Gaim when my screensaver is
> >>started. I got this working using some DBUS magic, some sort of polling
> >>application for xscreensaver, which is working now, but then I started
> >>to feel this is very limited. I wrote this now, its working, but it is
> >>relatively difficult to get any other application making use of these
> >>DBUS signals (screensaver started, stopped,...). Like, if I start using
> >>a new screensaver application, I'd need to write some other application
> >>to send out signals and monitor the screensaver app. Or if I'd start
> >>using aMsn instead of Gaim, I'd have to hack on that one, and so on. But
> >>in the end there would be no global overview: it would be hack on hack
> >>on hack, where most of the previous work gets lost.
> >>This explanation may sound very obscure, I know it's not really well
> >>written, but I don't really know how to explain this better.
> >>
> >>So I started thinking about a more "global" desktop notification and
> >>information providing system. I wrote down a document where I try to
> >>describe what I got in my head here [1]. Someone commented on it already
> >>here [2].
> >>
> >>The current "working title" I chose is "Desktop Abstraction Layer",
> >>similar to HAL, because this proposal has a lot of similarities to HAL.
> >>It's just not hardware-centered.
> >>
> >>I'd like to know whether you guys think this is a useful application, if
> >>there already exists something like this, if it is useful, where do I
> >>make mistakes in my proposed implementation,... Most of you are far more
> >>familiar to desktop programming than I am, so...
> >>
> >>If this proposal looks useful in some way, I'd like to make a
> >>freedesktop.org project of it, because IMHO that's where it belongs.
> >>That's a discussion for later on though :-)
> >>
> >>
> >>I'm looking forward to read your ideas, comments and so on on this!
> >>
> >>
> >>Kind regards,
> >>
> >>Ikke						http://www.eikke.com
> >>
> >>
> >>[1]
> >>http://code.eikke.com/index.php?dir=DesktopAbstractionLayer/&file=presentation-1.txt
> >>[2]
> >>http://blog.eikke.com/index.php/ikke/2005/01/12/review_and_comments_asked#comments, 2nd comment
> >>
> 
> 
> Take a look at http://ofi.hakore.com
> this is exactly what I've been thinking about when I did it as a proof
> of concept with OFI.

Looks like a nice project.  Have you talked with the Galago guys?  They
are doing something similar and are listed on the freedesktop project
page.

http://galago.sourceforge.net/news/index.php

--
J5