| 1 |
On Friday 12 February 2010 00:56:33 Zeerak Waseem wrote: |
| 2 |
> On Thu, 11 Feb 2010 23:53:10 +0100, Volker Armin Hemmann |
| 3 |
> |
| 4 |
> <volkerarmin@××××××××××.com> wrote: |
| 5 |
> > On Donnerstag 11 Februar 2010, Zeerak Waseem wrote: |
| 6 |
> >> Particularly when your wm can handle all the inter-app |
| 7 |
> >> communication that is necessary without dbus. |
| 8 |
> > |
| 9 |
> > the problem is the WM can NOT handle all the inter-app communication |
| 10 |
> > that is |
| 11 |
> > needed by a modern desktop environment. Especially, when you have apps |
| 12 |
> > that |
| 13 |
> > are just frames around building blocks that have to talk to each other |
| 14 |
> > (like |
| 15 |
> > for example konqueror, that is just a gui to the dolphin, khtml, konsole, |
| 16 |
> > gwenview kparts). |
| 17 |
> |
| 18 |
> But it seems to me, that the apps that need the communication are in DE's. |
| 19 |
> Which is fine, I just think that if you're choosing a smaller WM (Openbox, |
| 20 |
> awesome, JWM, etc.), where there isn't a need for an inter-app |
| 21 |
> communication that extensive, then it's a bit of an overkill really. |
| 22 |
|
| 23 |
That's your error in logic. |
| 24 |
|
| 25 |
You are assuming that smaller WMs don't need IPC. I believe that assumption to |
| 26 |
be false. If my belief is true, then your argument falls flat. |
| 27 |
|
| 28 |
By way of example: printing. By no stretch of the imagination can printing be |
| 29 |
considered to be a niche function. How will an arbitrary app find your |
| 30 |
printers? There are multiple print server around. So, you could: |
| 31 |
|
| 32 |
1. Say stuff it and build a print server into your app. We stopped doing that |
| 33 |
when DOS fell out of fashion. |
| 34 |
2. Support all possible print systems. lpr anyone? |
| 35 |
3. Or just use IPC and let dedicated print middleware deal with it. |
| 36 |
|
| 37 |
Multimedia buttons. One of the most confounding things on modern hardware are |
| 38 |
multimedia buttons. Volume is easy - make it adjust the sound server. Or you |
| 39 |
could use keybindings and have the wm do it, or you could send the keypresses |
| 40 |
to the configured audio app. And which one is that? Many apps do sound, which |
| 41 |
one will get the buttom focus? |
| 42 |
|
| 43 |
Even minimal WMs have many more such examples. Removing a sane IPC method that |
| 44 |
can be used everywhere instead of multiple implementations of similar |
| 45 |
functionality makes about as much engineering sense as claiming you don't need |
| 46 |
pipes in a shell. |
| 47 |
|
| 48 |
IPC is all about, perhaps you have not considered just how far that rabbit |
| 49 |
hole actually goes. |
| 50 |
|
| 51 |
|
| 52 |
|
| 53 |
|
| 54 |
-- |
| 55 |
alan dot mckinnon at gmail dot com |
Archives