[Xfc-dev] Xcfe4 wrapping features ?

[Erik Harrison]

On 12/14/06, Bo Lorentsen <bl at lue.dk> wrote:
> Hi ...
>
> I have tried to find a way to get an overview of the components in xfce
> desktop, while waiting to be able to submit my sourceview port :-)
>
> As I can see it, we have the following systems (in the order of
> importance as I see it) that need attention :
>
> 1. MCS setting access (cool thing, are there at standard for setting layout)

MCS fills a nice niche, but the system is a little byzantine. Probably
the whole MCS system will be replaced during 4.6 development. I
wouldn't worry about it during this point, and wait for it's
replacement to arrive.

> 2. libexo (is it mature and do we need more ?)
> 3. FileDialog (will this have Thunar relation/bindings)

If you mean XfceFileChooser, this is part of libxfcegui4, and is/will
be deprecated for the GtkFileChooser. It is a product of Xfce trying
to support older versions of Gtk+

> 4. xfprint system (Does this work if GTK+ gets its own printing service ?)

xfprint is really just a utility for pretty printing various kinds of
files. It's not something you should worry about.

> 5. Panel extension
> 6. Thunar extension

>From a language bindings point of view, you can take a look at what
the Perl and Python bindings support. Here is an overview of the
various libraries, from the point of view of someone writing language
bindings.

libxfce4util provides various stuff, such as a config file parser.
libxfcegui4 has some handy widgets
The panel library permits you to write panel plugins

These three (the panel, libgui and libutil) would be a nice binding of
the "core" desktop APIs. That's where I would start if you were going
to do C++ bindings for Xfce.

Beyond that there is:
libexo: a higher level library for building user applications, as
opposed to libgui and libutil which are really targeted at providing
an API for the core desktop.
thunarx: the system for extending Thunar itself.
Thunar-vfs - the VFS that Thunar and xfdesktop use. Potentially useful
to those writing applications that want a nice rich set of filesystem
operations.

And I would consider, if you were going to write C++ bindings for
things beyond the "core" three, that I would go in this order. exo
first, thunarx second, thunar-vfs third.

>
> Is this about it (this really is a nice chunk of work :-)) ?
>
> It is hard to get some understanding of what Xfce really is (yes it is
> an desktop), and I think some kind of introduction is needed somewhere.
> What is the main goal for this desktop, and how does the peaces fit
> together ?
>
> /BL
> _______________________________________________
> Xfc-dev mailing list
> Xfc-dev at xfce.org
> http://foo-projects.org/mailman/listinfo/xfc-dev
>


-- 
Erik

<@kazin> why does php have 'echo' and 'print'?  Do they do different things?
<Bluefoxicy> kazin:  echo prints in a big empty room