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[Jani Monoses]

> How can you say that a free software project has "no clear reason to be" 
> ? Did you read its motivations regards to gtkmm and other c++ 
> wrappers/toolkits on http://xfc.xfce.org/faq.xhtml#faq09 ?

I have reread them now, and they are about C++  implementation details, nothing
that would actually make one developer prefer it over gtkmm, especially since
the performance benefits it talks about are not backed by benchmarks and I am not
sure that minor performance benefits weigh as much as being well-maintained, documented
and used by many apps, all of which apply to gtkmm but not to XFC.

> Jeff worked a lot on Xfc _for fun_, and XFC didn't get the attention it 
> deserved imho. And i think it's really sad that XFC is orphaned, as Jeff 
> doesn't respond to e-mails....

These are among factors that determine whether a project has a reason to be.
If it is unmaintained and unused by others what is its purpose? This applies
to any project I am not trying to bash XFC in particular.

I don't doubt the good intentions of the developer but this looks more like another
product of the 'let's write a clone of a GNOME/GTK app lib from scratch, prefix its
name with Xf and get in the Xfce svn, hopefully someone will find a use for it' mentality.
It's a good idea when the product is good and has definite advantages over the GNOME
counterpart (Xfce core, thunar, etc.) but it's not always a good idea.

I have complained about this before, and was countered (by Brian) that we should not tell others
what to do. I agree but can then I please ask others what _not_ to do? Do not needlessly complicate
the already confusing process of choosing a library for development or an app for use, or if you
do please do not try putting everything under the Xfce umbrella, there are plenty of unmaintained
goodies already.

Contributing your efforts to making GTK or existing GNOME apps better suited to Xfce is a good alternative.

Sorry if I sound rantish, but seeing the Xfce project used as a dumping area for various experiments
is a bit disappointing. It's up to the code devels to decide and I am not one, I just wanted to expand
on why I called XFC 'without a reason to be'.

Jani