Subject: Re: [linux-audio-dev] ANNOUNCE: Rosegarden-4 v0.1.5 released
From: Paul Davis (pbd_AT_op.net)
Date: Sun May 05 2002 - 17:04:09 EEST
>rob wrote:
>
>> Paul Davis wrote:
>> > I don't think people writing audio/midi/music
>> > applications should be using "desktop environments".
>>
>> Their time is much better spent reimplementing everything a desktop
>> environment gives in non-standard ways that no-one other than themselves
>> can understand rather then working on the app.
>
>If people want good quality, well-supported music applications for Linux
>then they'd better leave their preconceptions at the door. We should
>eschew the geek in favour of the average user.
>
>Make use of the toolkits that already exist - make life easier for
>developers and users alike - provide quality software that's stable,
>functional and enjoy using.
Yes, but by using the "desktop environments" a developer risks several things:
1) require the user to have that desktop environment installed
2) require the user to have that desktop environment in use
3) require the user to understand that particular desktop environment
There is no single desktop environment for Linux, and its likely that
there never will be. Picking one so that you can use a "standard way"
of, say, storing configuration information in a file that you never
intend users to see (*cough*Gconf*cough*) seems crazy to me.
I have *nothing* against using a GUI toolkit. My objection is to the
massive chunks of code that KDE and GNOME represent, almost none of
which offers any improvements in consistency, ease-of-use or expanded
functionality for users. These environments are designed around
metaphors that work, to some extent, for office productivity
applications. I don't write office productivity applications (thank
god!), so in addition to the above problems with desktop environments,
I don't want users of my software forced into the naive, limited and
strained metaphors when they should be making, editing and processing
music and sound.
The parts that need sharing and standardizing for music apps live in
GUI toolkits, not "desktop environments".
--p
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