Re: ITP: cddb.bundle -- CDDB Bundle for GNUstep
Jeff Teunissen <deek@d2dc.net> writes:
> So do we. The names for GNUstep-based programs ARE unique -- no other free
> software is using (or, to my knowledge, has ever used) those names, and the
> names that "conflict" are named as they are for descriptiveness and for
> compatibility (Terminal, Preferences).
This is because other authors/projects have enough of a clue not to use
such names.
Those names made sense for NeXT, where everybody expected there to be a
single authoritative application supplied by the vendor for each (basic)
niche. They do _not_ make sense for a modern system containing
components from many disparate sources. It's simply rude to claim
generic namespace like that.
It's like the sharing a common orchard, each person being sure to only
use a reasonable portion of the apples -- and then one day somebody
shows up and says "Aha! There are many apples left! Nobody must want
them!" and proceeds to pick them all and pack them all away in his
house. He was correct that there were many apples left, but the
conclusion that nobody must want them, and that it was alright for him
to claim them all was wrong. Similarly, while you're correct that these
names were not in use, it is _not_ valid to conclude that it's OK (as
in, will be accepted by the general community) to then just use them for
your apps.
It would be reasonable if there were a way of mapping "generic names"
(e.g., "terminal") to specific applications, and having the
icon/menu/whatever display that name. Some users might pick the gnustep
versions, others might map them to gnome apps.
It seems that such a scheme would satisfy your interface concerns
without causing friction with other projects.
> On one of those counts, many GNUstep-using apps often win over their
> "competition". e.g. Terminal is a _very_ nice terminal emulator with
> excellent compatibility (it does UTF-8 well, and emulates the Linux
> console very well) and many features that are not found
> elsewhere. TextEdit is a rather good plaintext/RTF text editor, modulo
> some bugs in the GNUstep libraries.
The gnustep apps are alright, though when I've tried them, they seemed
to crash fairly often. But anyway, that's not the issue.
-Miles
--
Fast, small, soon; pick any 2.
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