Last December I discussed Interface Stability on the desktop-devel-list and you can refer to the conversation here:
http://mail.gnome.org/archives/desktop-devel-list/2004-December/msg00461.html
As a part of our ARC process, when one team in Sun wants to integrate via an interface that another team at Sun owns, a contract is typically created to ensure future support between the two teams.
Recently, a team at Sun wanted to integrate their own icons into the panel, and worked with one of my co-workers to integrate via the mechanisms described here:
http://acd.ucar.edu/~fredrick/linux/gnomeconfig/
So now we need to put together an internal contract, but realized that without some assurance from the GNOME community regarding the best interfaces to use, we can't really provide the assurances the internal contract requires.
There doesn't seem to be a more official documentation site at GNOME that highlights the appropriate ways to integrate with GConf. Which key/value pairs, for example, are Stable and safe integration points. So users do not need to fear that the key might change in a non-backwards compatible way.
I notice that the GNOME Admin Guide has slightly different instructions for how things should be integrate with the panel, but I know this documentation was written for GNOME 2.0 and might be out-of-date.
http://www.gnome.org/learn/admin-guide/2.0/ch01s06.html#gconf-14
So, I have a couple questions:
1. To fulfil our needs to create an internal contract at Sun, it would be great if someone could explain the correct/best approach for integrating into the panel. It would also be useful if people could highlight if this interface is Stable and will be supported in an on-going fashion.
2. It would probably be a good idea if someone put together a document that could go on the dgo website that explains which GConf keys are intended to be Stable integration points that should be supported in a backwards compatible fashion. I'd be happy to put together something. Would going through the Admin Guide and digging out all the Gconf keys that we recommend user's change be the best way to get this information. Are there additional documents that might be recommending GConf changes that should be supported?
In a prior email, I mentioned that some people at Sun are working to put together a proposal regarding how to better organize the way GNOME installs itself to the filesystem. Just wanted to mention that we are making progress and should have something to present in the next few weeks.
Thanks!
Brian
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