Cafe Thoughts
I’m sitting at the Coffee Bean with a large Ice Mocha. Things that I’ve been working on include:
- The GNOME Journal article on Zeitgeist which is due today.
- An improved version of the mockup which I posted last night. (The new mockup is still only on paper.)
- I discussed this bug with Ketil.
- I’ve been thinking about how to handle fulltext searches in Zeitgeist. I’ll post about that later.
- I’ve bought the domain name natanyellin.com last week. I’m going to start redirecting theesylum.com to natanyellin.com later this week.
Time to get back to work. One large Ice Mocha down and one salad to go.
Syncing Documents While Dangling from a Cloud
Introduction
Rodney Dawes wrote an interesting post that I saw on Planet GNOME a few weeks back. Here’s one excerpt that I found noteworthy:
The Future is not your desktop. It is mobile devices. It is tablets. It is holographic displays and interfaces. It is flexible transparent screens. It is your television, your appliances, your home, your car. It is all the things we haven’t even scratched the surface of, for sensible user interface design. It is networked storage, with your content being accessible wherever you are, be it in your living room, kitchen, hotel 5000 miles away, or a boat in the middle of the ocean. If we want to move into the future, and not get left behind, we need to start thinking about this, not what new shiny method of accessing a 50 year old 2D desktop is best. None of them are best.
The bolded bit is particularly interesting. Cloud computing is not simply a phenomena that we’re likely to see at some point in the future. It’s already here. Today. Every time that someone uploads a photo to Flickr, they’re going out onto the cloud. Every blog post, Google Document, and even email is a little whisp in the clouds. This is where people are working, playing, living, and- most of all- sharing.
Applet Languages
At the GNOME Summit, Owen suggested the following:
When trying to decide on a language for applets/widgets, just about everyone will suggest their own favorite language along with reasons why that language is appropriate. However, one thing that needs to be considered is choosing nobody’s favorite language- Javascript.
Owen, I see your point but have to disagree. One of the key purposes of an applet/widget framework should be to allow new and inexperienced developers to easily write their first GNOME application with the smallest learning curve possible. Because of all the people familiar with it, Javascript is an appropriate language, but so are Python and C#.
Before I focus on the advantages of using multiple languages for applet development, I’d like to review a few of the key philosophies that drive GNOME Development:
- Software should be easy and simple to use for new users.
- Software shouldn’t have a large learning curve.
- Different pieces of software for the same platform should use consistent interface elements and share design decisions. Users shouldn’t need to learn new skills in order to use new applications.
When these same philosophies are applied to development and placed in a GNOME specific context their implications are:
- There should be GNOME frameworks that allow developers to easily write applications, even if they have no prior experience with GNOME.
- Developers shouldn’t have to learn many new skills in order to develop their first GNOME application. When possible, they should be able to use their existing knowledge from other platforms.
- Different pieces of software for the same platform should use the same technologies. A developer working on one GNOME application should be able to quickly jump in and contribute to a fellow GNOME developer’s application without needing to learn anything new.
The implications of 2 and 3 are problematic and contradictory. If we allow developers to jump into GNOME Development using all of their existing skills (including intimate knowledge of languages and toolkits), how can we still create a united platform that uses one set of standard and familiar GNOME technologies? More importantly, how can we create a platform with an interface that’s consistent for users?
The solution that’s been followed for the past 11 years is a simple one- Wherever giving developers extra freedom will not hurt the user experience, freedom should be given. In other words, development in multiple languages is fine, but using multiple toolkits is not fine.
This strategy has worked amazingly well. There are a wealth of applications that have been written in C, C++, Python, Mono, and a few other languages. If GNOME had begun with an ironset rule that applications may only be developed in C, we would still be in the dark ages of desktop development with all development done by a few hardcore C junkies. Heck, even if applications were allowed to be written in one “high level” language like Perl- or even the fledgling Python of 1997, for that matter- we would still never be where we are today. All of the goodness that has come out of Mono- and most likely everything that uses pygtk, as well- would have been lost in the curves and twists of a what-if history of GNOME.
The reason GNOME is so diverse and powerful today is because of it’s flexibility with regard to languages and even technologies. We’ve always embraced the new and hot, most recently with Clutter. We’ve also always allowed developers to use as many of their existing coding skills as possible. We’ve taken in developers from just about everywhere- Windows, Mac OS X, the Web, etc- and they‘re the reason that GNOME rocks so much today.
Owen, I’d love to support simplified Javascript applets/widgets, but I can’t imagine doing so without still supporting other types of widgets. There are no statistics regarding how many developers come to GNOME from other platforms, and whether most of them come from web development or desktop development. The one fact is that we do have developers from both ends of the spectrum, and our job is to get as many of them as possible involved with GNOME development. A framework that will alienate half- or even a quarter- of them is not the right answer.
Going to Boston
I’ve been invited to the GNOME User Experience Hackfest in Boston, and I’m going! (Thanks to the GNOME foundation who offered to cover the expenses.)
One of the main topics of the hackfest is collaboration throughout the desktop. Universal Applets 0.1 should be out by the time that the hackfest begins, so it’ll be a good opportunity to get some feedback and share ideas with the rest of the community.
Anyway, thank you again to the GNOME foundation for making this possible! I’ll see some of you in Boston!
About Me
20 year old undergrad in CS & Physics, co-founder of Freeversation, faux CEO of Politician Market, and former software developer at Check Point.
I am interested in social startups, information security, and robotics. Read more about me
Contact
Email aantny [at] gmail [dot] com. If it's interesting, I can code it.