Projects in xfce repos, ehm...

[Jannis Pohlmann]

Am Fri, 21 Nov 2008 00:06:25 +0100
schrieb "Stephan Arts" <stephan at xfce.org>:

> On Fri, Nov 21, 2008 at 12:02 AM, Christian Dywan
> <christian at twotoasts.de> wrote:
> > Am Thu, 20 Nov 2008 22:55:52 +0100
> > schrieb Jannis Pohlmann <jannis at xfce.org>:
> >
> >> Hey,
> >>
> >> Am Thu, 20 Nov 2008 16:39:08 +0100
> >> schrieb "Stephan Arts" <stephan at xfce.org>:
> >>
> >> Personally I wouldn't mind to include more programs into the Core
> >> like for power management and notifications for example, because
> >> those make the desktop complete (IMHO Terminal, mousepad and orage
> >> are essential even though I don't use mousepad).
> >> But I think what really matters is that more Core stuff does not
> >> make releasing more complex. I feel that this should be one of the
> >> things to focus on in the upcoming months.
> >>
> >> I also think there's room for improvements concerning the goodies
> >> releases. Important goodies should get more attention and should
> >> maybe get their own niché somewhere between core and goodies. Hmmm.
> >>
> >> Personal opinion: Consider more applications as part of the Core
> >> (but choose carefully) and don't make a big deal out of whether an
> >> application is Core or not.
> >
> > I also think currently the definition of what 'Core' actually is,
> > seems to be a little unclear, especially seeing how mixed the
> > replies in this thread are I see that confirmed.
> >
> > Maybe there should actually be three categories, let me attempt to
> > give a deliberate definition.
> >
> > Core: Components one needs in order to run a system in a useful way.
> > That includes roughly panels, window manager, whatever xfdesktop is,
> > the various settings applications, power management.
> > ^^ All of those should be stable. For instance, if the powermanager
> > isn't stable, I'd rather not see it there until it is.
> >
> > Apps: Applications that are useful, that really many Xfce users
> > would use, but that are essentially replaceable. Such as terminal,
> > file manager, editor, archiver, image viewer, media player.
> > ^^ Thunar is a special one: it cannot practically be independant
> > from Core, but semantically for me it should be.
> 
> The reason for that is the dependency several apps have on thunar-vfs.
> A solution to that would be to extract thunar-vfs from thunar, but it
> in core with 4.8, and deprecate it over time.

That is something we can actually make happen by replacing thunar-vfs
with gio/gvfs. But that doesn't really solve the issue about what
should be part of the "core" and what should not.

One problem I have with the Goodies as they are is that they tend to be
neglected. The infrastructure for them exists but a lot of those who
have a component in the main SVN don't want their application to be
moved to the Goodies because it means to get less attention and to
lose a bit of reputation/importance as an Xfce developer.

So, as an alternative to taking more apps/goodies into the core we could
think about how to make the Goodies more attractive. A platform like 
gnomefiles.org might be more attractive than our current wiki setup. 
And if we can take the release process to a new level by using a
time-based release model with much less than an 18 months release
cycle, I'm sure the developer community as a whole will start moving
and become more vibrant.

  - Jannis
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