Suggestion for improving backend configuration...

[Gregory Casamento]

Fred,

What I had thought is that the initializeBackend method could use information from the info.plist for the bundle to determine what the concrete subclass for the context and server are.  This would be trivial to implement.

It seems to me that it should be possible to compile a backend without modifying the logic I quoted in the previous message.

Wouldn't it be also better to build the common parts of the backend into a framework so that "third party" backends could be written without requiring direct changes to GNUstep code.

This is just something I was thinking about that could be useful which is why I asked for thoughts regarding it.  It is not a fully formed idea, so there shouldn't be any puzzling over it, I was asking people to brainstorm a little with me.

Later, GC 

On Wed, Jun 27, 2012 at 5:36 PM, Fred Kiefer <address@hidden> wrote:
> On 27.06.2012 17:02, Gregory Casamento wrote:
>>
>> Guys, currently the code which configures the backend graphics context
>> looks like this:
>>
>>   /* What backend context? */
>>   if ([defs stringForKey: @"GSContext"])
>>     context = [defs stringForKey: @"GSContext"];
>>
>>   if ([context isEqual: @"xdps"])
>>     contextClass = NSClassFromString(@"NSDPSContext");
>>   else if ([context isEqual: @"art"])
>>     contextClass = NSClassFromString(@"ARTContext");
>>   else if ([context isEqual: @"winlib"])
>>     contextClass = NSClassFromString(@"WIN32Context");
>>    else if ([context isEqual: @"cairo"])
>>     contextClass = NSClassFromString(@"CairoContext");
>>  else
>>     contextClass = NSClassFromString(@"XGContext");
>>
>> I think that this information should come from the backend bundles
>> plist if possible.  This way it's possible to create a backend without
>> needing to modify backend code directly.
>>
>> Any thoughts?
>>
>> Later, GC
>>
>
> Getting this information from the plist instead of hard coding the values
> here is fine by me. But how would the correct value get into the plist and
> how can you write a backend without touching the backend code?
>
> Completely puzzled,
> Fred
>
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Gregory Casamento
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