Month: September 2005

I created some patches that will make the GPLed part of Maemo target the D-BUS version that can a.t.m. be found in fd.o’s CVS. Come join the fun if you like.

A colleague of me at X-Tend has just send me a link to a website with what must be the only true definition of GNOME.

Yesterday I told about The desktop configuration specification. Regretfullt my server went down this morning after 541 days uptime. It’s possible that cause of that downtime some people who where interested in the document failed to view it. It should be back online now.

During the last days/weeks I’ve been working on the desktop configuration specification. Yesterday I decided to convert the document to XHTML. This makes it even more easy for potential contributors to join the effort of creating this specification.

With the document I got to the point where I’m about to say: “this my proposal”, “what do you want me to adjust and/or do different”? So I’m seeking comments and/or suggestions.

The freedesktop.org organisation told me that they’d like to see a rough implementation first (replace fd.o with Daniel if you want it to be 100% correct). They will, however, assist me with facilities like repository hosting, a mailing list for a committee that decides about shareable keys and a wiki page once that first implementation is finished. The specification might also become a recommendation by the freedesktop organisation. The requirement, however, is that there needs to be a first a rough implementation first. The main reason for holding back is that specifications tend to change a lot during the development of a first implementation. I don’t disagree with this.

Therefore I invite interested people to read the proposal. Perhaps even help me make corrections (I’m sure there’s plenty of errors in the document at this moment). Perhaps even help me implementing a rough first implementation and/or adjust an existing infrastructure (like KConfig or GConf). Or build a new infrastructure. Or help with any imaginable use for this specification. One could, for example, adapt GConf or KConfig. Or even make a code generator like KConfigXT that uses the schemas defined by this specification. There’s a lot of work if you too want to make this standard happen (just ask me for it! :p).

One direction that will be taken is extending this specification (and implementing an implementation) with an add-on to make remote desktop configuration data management reality. At my company we will be looking into this. We are already doing an analysis about this subject. I will/might publicise a document with this analysis soon. I can already tell that it will most likely implement JEP 0072 (SOAP over XMPP) for remote notification of pushed changes and SOAP over https for transferring data. But all this is highly unfinished and uncertain at this moment. We welcome participants and/or teams that are interested. As a Linux consultancy company, our plans are to release this project using the GPL license (note that it doesn’t exist at this moment, we are doing analysis).

Cairo – Egypt

I’ve been to Cairo (in Egypt, not the software library) last week. All I have to share with my blog readers about my vacation is that
the (taxi) drivers in Cairo are insane and that I learned a lot about the ancient Egyptians and their culture. Our tourist guide was very good. If you plan to travel to Cairo and need a tourist guide, ask your travel agency (they probably use the services of Travco) for Mr. Hosam M. Kamel. I really enjoyed his passion for the culture of his country.

Desktop configuration specification

(Before I went on vacation) I’ve been doing some discussions with some of the key developers of
existing configuration infrastructure on the opensource platform about the creation of a specification and/or standard for desktop configuration.

I tried to create the standard. I used LaTex for the document format and
added a build environment that will create both a dvi and pdf from it.

You can find more information here (unfinished). You can find the proposal itself (it’s source) here and a tarball of it here. Because I know most of you guys are fucking lazy, this is a precompiled PDF.

I don’t yet have permission (from Daniel) to let freedesktop.org be the
CVS repository hosting location. He’d like to see a rough/scratch but
working implementation first. Mainly because standards tend to change
radically as an implementation is written. I don’t disagree with that.

If people are interested in building a rough implementation and/or
helping me with crafting this standard/specification: please do contact
me. I really can use your help (I’m serious). Read the “ps” if you are
interested.

Note that this rough implementation is not necessarily the same as the
project that has been dubbed “DConf”. It might be. Or “UniConf” could
implement it. Or .. whatever (which project implements it first, isn’t
important. But a first implementation is important for the standard to
prove itself).

ps. Some very interesting and extremely important documentation about
desktop configuration that affects this specification can be found here

• OOR document format
• Plans for GConf
• Plans for GConf as a spec

This one might also interest you.