RFC : gnome and non-linux oses
Hi folks Yesterday, the code supporting choosing xkb model was removed from control center - because on linux all keycodes are based on evdev (techically correct statement - but only for linux) and noone really cares about geometry. Is there official policy related to supporting gnome on non-linux platforms? If some UI is harmless but gives little functionality on linux and really useful on other oses - should it be kept? I am not fighting for a single button (I like it when code is removed) - I am asking to provide guidelines, to avoid confusion in future. Thank you, Sergey ___ desktop-devel-list mailing list desktop-devel-list@gnome.org http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/desktop-devel-list
Re: RFC : gnome and non-linux oses
On Fri, 2011-01-28 at 16:23 +, Sergey Udaltsov wrote: Hi folks Yesterday, the code supporting choosing xkb model was removed from control center - because on linux all keycodes are based on evdev (techically correct statement - but only for linux) and noone really cares about geometry. Is there official policy related to supporting gnome on non-linux platforms? If some UI is harmless but gives little functionality on linux and really useful on other oses - should it be kept? I am not fighting for a single button (I like it when code is removed) - I am asking to provide guidelines, to avoid confusion in future. In this particular case, I'm the one who removed the code. To be honest, I'm not even sure that changing the keyboard model would have been all that useful on any slightly recent Unix-like OSes. The keyboard model should be auto-detected for USB and Bluetooth input devices, and I don't have any data saying that it's at all useful for, say, PS/2, or other undetectable keyboard types. Let's take a Sun machine with Solaris on it, does it really print out weird characters when you have both a legacy keyboard plugged in, and a USB one (X only supports one keyboard model, and the result would be garbage being printed when typing keys. Linux users remember a couple of years ago when X.org switched to using evdev and you had some custom keymaps in your XF86Config). In this particular case, I think it's a non-problem, and I'd rather remove it and get complaints afterwards rather than preach for the status quo, knowing full well that the setting will be useless and potentially confusing for a majority of users. Cheers ___ desktop-devel-list mailing list desktop-devel-list@gnome.org http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/desktop-devel-list
Re: RFC : gnome and non-linux oses
In this particular case, I'm the one who removed the code. To be honest, I'm not even sure that changing the keyboard model would have been all that useful on any slightly recent Unix-like OSes. As far as I know, on other OSes it was, because they do not have evdev. But of course the input from, say, Oracle engineers about Solaris would be useful here. Or from FreeBSD ppl. In this particular case, I think it's a non-problem, and I'd rather remove it and get complaints afterwards rather than preach for the status quo, knowing full well that the setting will be useless and potentially confusing for a majority of users. As I said before, I am not really defending the status quo in relation to xkb model - and from some point of view I like it when the code and UI is simplified. I am asking the people's opinion about the general strategy in treating non-linux systems. Or, perhaps, officially admitting that we do not have a policy here - just decide on case-by-case basis. Cheers, Sergey ___ desktop-devel-list mailing list desktop-devel-list@gnome.org http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/desktop-devel-list
Re: RFC : gnome and non-linux oses
On Fri, 2011-01-28 at 21:34 +, Sergey Udaltsov wrote: I am asking the people's opinion about the general strategy in treating non-linux systems. Or, perhaps, officially admitting that we do not have a policy here - just decide on case-by-case basis. It pretty much has to be done on a case-by-case basis. This pattern has happened plenty of times, I guess: 1. Someone implements something for Gnome, taking only Linux into account (not their fault; it's the only box they have). 2. Someone from another system sees that this doesn't work. 3. They write the equivalent code for another platform, and add what is needed to make it work there - a configure-time check or whatever. It does seem weird to have options in the UI along the lines of what system do you have?. The @#$! computer should be able to figure that out :) Federico ___ desktop-devel-list mailing list desktop-devel-list@gnome.org http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/desktop-devel-list
