[Desktop_architects] Portland: The Linux Desktop IntegrationInterface

[Bastian, Waldo]

>On Saturday 03 December 2005 04:49, Bastian, Waldo wrote:
>> In the followup session aimed at making the live of ISVs easier wrt
>> targetting the Linux Desktop two topics were discussed. The first
topic
>> addressed the issue of integrating with the two different desktop
>> environments. The second topic addressed the issue of API/ABI
stability.
>> I will not be addressing the second topic here.
>>
>>
>>
>> During the meeting on Thursday a number of desktop integration points
>> were identified that would benefit from having a well defined
interface,
>> independent of the desktop environment in use. In the follow up
meeting
>> it was discussed how we can move forward to make such common
interface a
>> reality. Nothing is real without a name and so "Portland" was adopted
as
>> the name of this initiative.
>
> How is this supposed to be different from the Rudi proposal? (I
couldn't
>attend so I don't know any details about this.)

Rudi is a potential way to implement parts of this. I think as a first
step the task team will be looking at a set of command line interfaces
though. There are a number of relative trivial issues that will benefit
greatly from a set of standardized command line interfaces. (Think a
desktop-neutral kfmclient) Beyond that stage I think there will be a
need for a Rudi-like approach in order to handle services that have more
demanding API needs. Hopefully people will have gained some more
practial experience around a Rudi-approach by that time in order to be
able to make the right decisions in that area. It would be great if
there was some working proof of concept to talk about at the next DDC.

Cheers,
Waldo