config daemon/library for 4.6

[Brian J. Tarricone]

Hey Jani,

Jani Monoses wrote:
> Hi Brian,
> 
>> Hey guys,
>>
>> Just spent a few hours hacking together a config daemon and library
>> sorta somewhat based on Jannis' spec[1].
> 
> have you looked at dconf to see how it covers the needs of Xfce?
> 
> It would be better in the long term to have one common config system (whichever it is)
> when possible, not two more or less equivalent (from a user POV) as it is now
> with gconf and mcs
> 
> http://live.gnome.org/dconf

Yes, I've looked at it.  My main issues are:

1.  The need for/desire to have schemas at all.  I just don't see why 
they're necessary, and they complicate things.  Dconf is nicer than 
gconf in that schemas are entirely client-side and essentially optional 
(i.e., Xfce could implement a dconf client library that doesn't use 
schemas at all).  But still, it's a needless complication, IMO.

2.  Reads are handled by the client library (AFAICT), which is actually 
really cool for performance (would speed up desktop startup quite a 
bit), but is bad for the concept of having multiple config backends. 
Or, at least, it's a pain because both the client library and daemon 
need to know how to read from the multiple config stores.

3.  The system keys/mandatory keys concepts are more complicated than 
Xfce needs.  I'm planning on adding a simple method to xfconf for kiosk 
mode that lets you lock either full channels or arbitrary keys.

4.  From the dconf page: "You probably don't want to use this yet."  I 
want to use something now.  I spent an hour of thinking and 4 hours of 
coding last night, and I have something that's 80% complete.  15% will 
come from config-related stuff I've written for other apps, and the 
other 5% shouldn't be too hard.  Sorry, I'm just impatient, and instant 
gratification appeals to me.

Anyhow I've got work to do...

	-brian