Re: Inclusion of dbus-proxy

[joakim@verona.se]

Jan Moringen <jan.moringen@uni-bielefeld.de> writes:

> Hi,
>
> I recently developed dbus-proxy, a framework that makes accessing remote
> D-Bus objects from Emacs Lisp easier and more transparent than the
> current `dbus-call-method' mechanism. Since I was encouraged to propose
> it for inclusion in Emacs, I'm hereby doing so. Besides being attached,
> the code is also available here:
> http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~scymtym/+junk/dbus-proxy/files
>
> Let me start with a simple example of how a typical usage of dbus-proxy
> looks:
>
> (let ((device-kit (dbus-proxy-make-remote-proxy
>                    :system
>                    "org.freedesktop.DeviceKit"
>                    "/org/freedesktop/DeviceKit")))
>
>   ;; Retrieve the daemon-version property.
>   (slot-value device-kit :daemon-version)
>   (oref device-kit :daemon-version)
>
>   ;; Connect to the device-event signal.
>   (connect device-kit 'device-event
>     (lambda (&rest args)
>       (message "Device event %s" args)))
>
>   ;; Enumerate subsystems.
>   (enumerate-by-subsystem device-kit '("sound")))
>
> This example creates a proxy object for the device kit D-Bus object and
> uses its methods, properties and signals.
>
> dbus-proxy uses D-Bus introspection information to dynamically create
> classes and methods that reflect the structure of the remote interface
> in Emacs Lisp as naturally as possible. For example, `describe-class'
> can used to inspect the methods supported by a particular D-Bus object.
>
> dbus-proxy consists of the following components:
>
> + dbus-proxy.el
>   + public programming interface
>   + interface analysis
>   + proxy superclasses
>   + code generation
>   + unit tests
> + dbus-introspection.el
>   + accessors for D-Bus introspection data
>     (similar to those in dbus.el)
>   + parsing of signature strings
>   + unit tests
>
> I am aware of the following problems with respect to the inclusion in
> Emacs:
> + Names:
>   + Generated class names tend to be long and ugly and do not follow 
>     usual Lisp conventions
>   + `connect' and `disconnect' may need a `dbus-proxy-' prefix?
> + The generated class hierarchies only work with the :c3 method 
>   resolution order which was added to EIEIO upstream a few months ago 
>   but does not seem to have been merged yet
> + The unit tests use ert which is also not currently included in Emacs
> + The use of the cl library may or may not be acceptable
>
> I have signed the copyright assignment for Emacs.
>
> What do you think?

I have used Jan:s dbus-proxy while working on Inkscape-Emacs
integration. Dbus-proxy has been very useful, so I would very much like
for dbus-proxy to be included. Maybe in the new official GNU ELPA repos?

> Kind regards,
> Jan
>
>
>
>

-- 
Joakim Verona