From kde-core-devel Thu Sep 30 08:59:47 1999 From: Simon Hausmann Date: Thu, 30 Sep 1999 08:59:47 +0000 To: kde-core-devel Subject: RE: More thoughts about embedding (fwd) X-MARC-Message: https://marc.info/?l=kde-core-devel&m=93868198710321 ..stupid f***** reply-to :-( ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Thu, 30 Sep 1999 09:49:45 +0100 From: David Faure To: 'Simon Hausmann' Subject: RE: More thoughts about embedding > I think there are several problems when attempting to use an IDL > interface to create/connect to a GUI: > > 1) Using IDL will *always* end up in a restricted solution, meaning > developers will not be able to create/modify certain GUI elements, > because they're either not defined in the IDL, yet, or > they are too > difficult to describe them in IDL (too much bloat) > > In the end this means that applications using this > technology will not > be able to use the latest features of Qt/kdeui and therefore > possibly have a less-functional GUI than applications not > using this technology. I agree, hence my mixed corba-XML solution proposal. > 2) Using IDL will *always* create a certain kind of bloat. Take the > OpenParts pixmap conversion for example... Yes, but OTOH using QPixmap all over the place kills ANY interoperability, be it with Java, bonobo, c, perl, whatever. Hence the idea of _using_ QPixmap for koffice to koffice stuff, but keeping the IDL for interoperability. > 3) It requires developers to learn a "new GUI" system. This > is bad IMHO, as there should IMHO be *one* interface for creating a GUI. If we can provide both, they don't need to learn the non-Qt one. > Another point: > If you want to use XML to describe a GUI, then you *need* > direct access to > the embedded component, like for accessing QAction objects > for example. > You cannot use CORBA here. Really ? I need to know more about this. Can't you describe in XML "I want a menu with such and such items, please add it" ? I suppose the problem is the callback when the item is pressed, but that's where corba helps. I really see good points in that mixed XML-CORBA solution : you can add a lot of new GUI stuff in the XML format, so you don't create IDL bloat for that, but you are still able to communicate via CORBA to other languages/processes/machines, to send the XML and to implement actions when menu items are pressed, when you need to redraw yourself, etc... -- David Faure faure@kde.org - KDE developer david@mandrakesoft.com - Mandrake david.faure@cramer.co.uk - Cramer Systems