[mactropolis]

Hi,

I was reading a forum or news article the other day that said that someone in the GNU/open-source movement stated that GNU/open-source applications should separate the 'engine' code of their projects from the 'GUI' part of it. I believe the forum post also mentioned GIMP and gaim as two open-source projects pursuing that design goal. The idea, i think, behind it is to reduce the amount of redundency in free and open-source software. For example, if gaim (gaim.sf.net) or GIMP (www.gim.org) was not tied to any specific interface technology (GTK+ in this case), it would make it easier to see a KDE/Qt or OS X 'front-end' to the 'engine' that does the actual work.

Does anyone recall any such topic or have any information/links about this? Who was the person that suggested this? Was it Stallman?

Thanks

[Developer]

You always try to do that more or less. That has nothing to do with open source software.

[diamondsw]

Originally posted by Developer:
You always try to do that more or less. That has nothing to do with open source software.

Other than the fact that OSS tends to be questionable on its software development techniques. You see a *lot* of mixing of the interface and the underlying functionality, not to mention the functionality is frequently near unmaintainable. Look at how often we see releases of old standby's like wget...

[Angus_D]

Adium and Fire are both Mac OS X front-ends that use libgaim.

[mactropolis]

Yea, i know that having as much abstraction between the GUI and code is allways better...

I was just wandering if someone well-known in the OSS movement had formally or informally said that OSS projects should separate their GUI and back-end components for eisier portability, etc. I'll try asking some people in the gaim mailing list or on IRC if their recall any such announcement.

BTW, you guys like my new sig? I just updated it.

Thanks
_________
I don't suffer from excessive masturbation...I enjoy every hour of it.

[Angus_D]

Originally posted by mactropolis:
I was just wandering if someone well-known in the OSS movement had formally or informally said that OSS projects should separate their GUI and back-end components for eisier portability, etc. I'll try asking some people in the gaim mailing list or on IRC if their recall any such announcement.

Due to the nature of the "OSS movement" I think that structure is down to those in charge of individual projects (except for things like GNU projects which have to have common code styles and things like that). Generally, the popular/decent OSS projects are written by clever people with a clue, and they will make intelligent decisions

[mactropolis]

What about my new sig? You'all like it? Appropriate? Honest? : )

_________
I don't suffer from excessive masturbation...I enjoy every hour of it.

[calumr]

Originally posted by mactropolis:
Does anyone recall any such topic or have any information/links about this? Who was the person that suggested this? Was it Stallman?

I recently read "The Art of UNIX Programming" by ESR (http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/taoup/). He didn't invent any of the ideas he describes (like separating the interface from a reusable library of code), but the book is a good read if you want to learn a bit more about writing software.

He does bash GUIs a bit too much as being not as powerful as the CLI (which is true, although they're not as weak as he makes out) but his points about storing data as text wherever possible, and reusing existing components opened my eyes a little.

[macrophyllum]

Originally posted by mactropolis:
What about my new sig? You'all like it? Appropriate? Honest? : )

_________
I don't suffer from excessive masturbation...I enjoy every hour of it.

I don't know about appropriate, but certainly honest! I like it.

[Kristoff]

It's called MVC, and if you don't do it, you're a fool.