On Fri, Mar 6, 2009 at 5:38 PM, Jason Smith <[email protected]>wrote:
> David Reid wrote: > >> Consider DBus, which is a mandatory component of Linux (actually, >>> Freedesktop) desktops, is now understood by all developers, leading to >>> more >>> and more apps talking to each other over DBus. I suggest that having a >>> document DB built in to all Linux desktops would be true innovation for >>> Linux development (especially since the GNOME pundits want to move to >>> "web-aware" desktops). >>> >>> >> I reject the notion that any (much less all) developers understand DBus. >> > > I'll concede the point. Maybe DBus isn't appropriate. Mostly I wanted to > discuss whether desktop applications could or should use a document database > instead of custom config files and binary formats. > > (In the future! When it's ready!) > > I agree with Noah's warning about "technobunkum." I disagree that a > desktop document DB is technobunkum; however since posting the original > question, I've realized that distros don't embed MySQL like this, and even > SQLite doesn't have universal adoption among desktop apps. So that forces > me to acknowledge that people have voted with their feet. (Maybe "the > people" are fools, but whaddayagonnado?) > > 2. (I'm surprised this doesn't exist already) A DBus CouchDB client API, >>> so >>> that nobody has to learn or use HTTP in their code, just the well-known >>> DBus. >>> >>> >> ... having a DBus couchdb API is a TERRIBLE idea. It's right up there >> with >> building an XML-RPC or SOAP bridge to CouchDB. I promise you that a great >> deal more people understand HTTP than DBus. >> > > Oh, right. That is why there aren't any language bindings for Couch. I > forgot that everybody just uses HTTP :p There are so many client libraries with various feature sets because HTTP is so easy to use and implement. Still, DBus is tangential to the main argument. My concern with a DBus API > is you need a persistent process translating between DBus RPC calls and > HTTP calls. So all DBus gives you is a language-independent API but since > Couch has bindings for all major languages (and direct HTTP too), I could be > persuaded that DBus is not worth the effort. > > Having said that, any programmer in any language can learn DBus in a day. You overestimate the the competency of programmers. -David
