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On Sat, Sep 17, 2011 at 7:00 PM, Alan McKinnon <alan.mckinnon@×××××.com> wrote: |
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> On Sat, 17 Sep 2011 15:24:39 -0400 |
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> Michael Mol <mikemol@×××××.com> wrote: |
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> Dbus is an interesting piece of technology and rather useful, it does |
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> it a disservice to knock it. |
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Honestly, I really only want to provide reasonable criticism. I just |
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tend to get hung up on the nitty gritty details and where I think I |
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see something illogical. |
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|
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> As Canek posted a few mails higher up, it |
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> implements a standard messaging layer on top of existing mechanisms. |
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> You know about the existing mechanisms so you also know that they only |
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> provide a means for communication, not the language used for the |
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> communication. And developing a language for every IPC you want to do |
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> becomes tiresome very quickly. |
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|
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Don't I know it. I have to maintain proprietary, network binary |
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protocols passing data between propriety applications I also maintain. |
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I don't _like_ that architecture in the slightest, but it's what I get |
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paid for. |
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|
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> |
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> As an analogy (albeit a poor one) dbus relates to IPC as TCP relates to |
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> IP - all the boring plumbing underneath your communication that makes it |
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> work at all is already there. It would work best if dbus doesn't become |
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> yet another way to do IPC, but replaces many of them. Imagine how |
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> much unbloat you could accomplish if you could remove all the little |
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> bits of IPC plumbing scattered throughout the average Unix system's |
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> codebase. |
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|
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There's the terminology confusion that I got hung up on in the last |
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email; D-Bus is a higher-level IPC mechanism than the ones it's |
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implemented on top of. |
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|
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> There are many code projects out there that deserves to be maligned to |
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> the point of painful death, then killed. But I honestly beleive dbus is |
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> not one of them. |
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There are two principle things I dislike about D-Bus. |
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|
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1) It doesn't support live upgrading of the daemon. We discussed the |
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reasons behind this several weeks ago, as I recall. Transparent |
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session control handoff is, of course, complicated, and nobody has |
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seen the work as worthwhile. |
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|
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2) It comes with (or appears to come with) a Linux-centric (sometimes |
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even a Linux-only) view. I love Linux, and I would love to see Linux |
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grow and improve. I also use (and am comfortable with) Windows and |
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Android (which I would consider Not Really Linux) and other |
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platforms*. Attitudes and actions which push Linux as the One Ring |
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smack of 'Embrace, Extend, Extinguish'. |
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|
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That latter point, really, bothers me greatly. Market disruption |
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happens, and sometimes it's even necessary for advancement, sure. |
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Other than those two things, D-Bus seems interesting and useful. If it |
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manages to obsolete system-local IPC mechanisms, that's great. If it |
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manages to get out into the local network and be used to pass messages |
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back and forth between my local systems? That's awesome. If it manages |
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to allow applications to talk back and forth in a secure fashion |
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between Linux and non-Linux systems? Now we're talking about some real |
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improvement on the status quo. |
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|
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* I think I could get by on a Mac, but it's difficult getting past |
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some prejudices and annoying fanboys I know IRL. It's also difficult |
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getting past the price tag; I don't see myself buying the hardware or |
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software unless I intend to develop for them. As for what I use? All |
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five computers at home run Linux; one Debian, three Ubuntu, one |
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Gentoo. My fiancee and I both have Android phones. |
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|
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-- |
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:wq |