On Fri, 12 Feb 2010 15:46:57 +0100, BRM <bm_witn...@yahoo.com> wrote:
----- Original Message ----
From: Zeerak Waseem <zeera...@gmail.com>
On Fri, 12 Feb 2010 10:53:04 +0100, Neil Bothwick wrote:
> On Fri, 12 Feb 2010 05:19:43 +0100, Zeerak Waseem wrote:
>> But I do find it silly, that the various applications that aren't
>> dependent of the DE, to require a dependency of the DE. It just seems
>> a bit backwards to me :-) I simply don't understand.
> That just shows that they are still partially dependent on the DE,
KMail
> also needs various KDE libraries. KDE was designed as a cohesive DE,
not
> just a bunch of applications with a common look and feel. KDE apps are
> intended to be run on a KDE desktop, anything else is a nice bonus.
Indeed, and it is a noble pursuit.
But from a marketing aspect, it would make more sense to have things
that aren't
-vital- for the app, unlike kde-libs in this case, to be soft (is this
the
correct term?) dependencies.
Both aspects could be satisfied by having symantic-desktop as an
optional dep.
It's not a vital function for kmail to be able to tag and index all the
files on
the computer (which is what the symantic-desktop does if I understand
correctly), it's a nifty thing for KDE users, and soon probably Gnome
users as
well, but for anyone else, it's a nifty thing -if- they feel the need
for it.
Much like most other bits of software :-)
Obviously you don't understand the reason for the dependency.
It does not exist so that Kmail can index all the files on the system
but for the opposite -
so that Kmail can participate in the search by allowing the system to be
able to search _its_ data.
And, btw, you're not turning it off within Kmail, but at the system - DE
- level.
The application itself will still check to see if it could participate,
only to have nothing turned on to support so then it doesn't do anything.
Right, but then when the DE isn't a DE, but a window manager, a minimal
one, then it's kind of a strange for a function to be forced outside of
the specific DE. Well it seems strange to me anyway.
In the end there isn't a right or wrong, but just a standpoint.
Question: are you a software developer?
Kmail probably has the dependency the way they do b/c it is far easier
to make it one and let the system determine not to support the
functionality
than it is to litter the codebase with "if (symanticDesktopEnabled)..."
code.
An aspiring one, yes. And it probably easier to just make it a hard dep,
however if the quality of their application for anyone -not- using kde.
It's sensible for it being set if you have kde, but if you don't have kde
it just seems very out of place.
Some don't mind
the bloat (we can agree that it's bloat if you're just going to disable
the
function as soon as it's been installed, right?) and don't consider it
to be the
slightest bit akin to bloat, whilst to others it's an unnecessary
feature forced
on them (mainly thinking of the people not using kde, but also those
kde-users
that just disable it) and thus becomes bloat.
No more than it is bloat for gcc to support mmx/sse/sse2/sse3/sse4 when
your processor cannot.
Ben
I hadn't considered that particular thing, but yes, in a sense you're
right. I mean there is difference for a compiler and a mail app, with gcc
you can compile for another system so the it supports things your
processor doesn't support doesn't necessarily mean that you won't need the
support, with a mail app you can... But essentially, if you know you'll
never need to compile for another processor, then yes I'd consider it
bloat.
--
Zeerak
