> > HOW CAN WE BUILD A QUALITY PRODUCT IF NOBODY
> UNDERSTANDS IT. Tim even
> > mentioned he won't mess with it because he doesn't use
> those languages. I
> > think we have to be kidding ourselves if we are trying
> to provide a
> > "quality product".
> 
> Seems to me that we need to start by finding the answers to
> these questions:
> 
> -Which languages are involved?  Looking at the source
> in GIT, I think I see 
>  Java, Perl,  Python, C#, C, Ruby, XPart (whatever
> that is), and Javascript, 
>  plus some other stuff (written mostly in Perl) that
> appears to be 
>  autogeneration/framework code for C# and Java.  Does
> anyone see 
>  anything that I may have missed or be misinterpreting?

Here is a complete list:

dcopc
dcopjava
dcopperl
dcoppython
kalyptus
kdejava
kjsembed
korundum
python
qtjava
qtruby
qtsharp
smoke
xparts

> -Which of these languages do we have potential maintainers
> for?
> 
> -Which of these bindings have actually been used for
> creating software?
>  Frex, Amarok has a Ruby dependency--will we need this
> interface to
>  maintain/further develop it?

I'm not qualified to make decisions. I can only offer that Java, JavaScript, Perl, Python, and Ruby are popular and not going away any time soon. DCop is important to controlling Trinity apps from external apps and scripts.

To me, the important question is not which bindings to maintain but compiling the package. If somebody wants to use their favorite language to hook into Trinity, let them have fun. Right now the big issue is why compiling is such torture. Seems right now I'm the only person trying. :)

> -If there are bindings which have never been used, can we
> safely drop
>  them?  My instinct is that most of them can probably
> be dumped if they
>  were never used, but it would be nice to keep one set
> (probably Python)
>  for those who want to code small interface modules for
> personal use
>  without dipping into the morass of C++.

Somebody who has a clue about these things could help by surfing the web looking for examples of how other people used these bindings. Possibly start at kde-look.org for apps?

> -If, after all that, we have modules that we want/need to
> keep, and no
>  maintainers, where do we go about looking for them? 
> That is, where
>  are the active communities for the relevant
> languages?  For Python I
>  expect the community centers around python.org, and for
> Perl I would 
>  probably try perlmonks, but I haven't been much involved
> with Java 
>  since before the Oracle buy-out, and have no familiarity
> at all with
>  the other languages.  Even if we decide that
> maintaining bindings for
>  a given language is not important, it might be nice to
> give the relevant
>  community a heads-up and see if anyone steps forward.

As many people have led themselves to believe Qt3 is dead, we might learn more about who is supporting the bindings atmosphere by looking around as to what others are doing with KDE4/Qt4. If we find nobody coding anything with a certain language binding, then we can be reasonably sure nobody cares about doing likewise in Trinity.

Darrell