[Java-gnome-developer] Namespaces

[<una...@ve...>]

Hello,

To the point:

GNOME is closely tied to GTK+ but GTK+ is much broader than GNOME.  There are
many projects that use GTK+ but don't use any of GNOME's libraries to limit
dependencies or for other reasons.

Java GTK+ bindings are at a disadvantage to other bindings, say Gtk#, because
of the late start.  They will need all the developer mind share that they can
get.  It is reasonable to expect that the authors of the bindings are
proponents of Java and would like the bindings to be as popular as possible
too.

Therefore, separating the bundle into sub-libraries is a move that makes the
most sense, and in particular, separating GTK+ from GNOME.  It would be
unrealistic to expect, for example, Windows users to install GNOME libraries
on their system to run GTK+ programs such as the GIMP, Inkscape or future ones
written in Java.  But I assume that after java-gnome is mature enough, this
will happen.  Furthermore:

The new incarnation of java-gnome wrappers is still relatively young and there
aren't many programs that use it.  This means that making incompatible changes
is still cheap.

That is why I would like to ask the developers to drop “gnome” from most of
the namespaces, i.e. change:

  org.gnome.gtk -> org.gtk,
  org.gnome.gdk -> org.gtk.gdk

and similarly for whichever namespaces are used that contain classes that are
independent from GNOME itself (org.pango, org.cairographics?).  This is how it
was done in the previous java-gnome.  Presently the bindings are giving
developers the impression that they are closely tied to GNOME, and one of the
reasons for that are the namespaces.  However, if the libraries are split
after the bindings are already popular, the gnome namespace will likely remain
for compatibility reasons.  I believe that this move is the right thing to do
and the best time to do it is now.

Of course, this is not something that will have a huge practical impact, but
personally I find such details important.  I voice my opinion because I care
about these bindings and will probably use them if they are made well enough.
Thank you for bearing with me.
-- 
Unavowed