Re: Anybody working on removing sendmail from base?

[Chris Pressey <cpressey@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Sun, 28 Sep 2003 22:29:25 +0200
ibotty <bsd@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> > [no event-oriented programming possible in current os]
> > In fact that's mainly why I'm here.  I'm hoping it doesn't *have* to
> > be this way.
> > 
> > Will DragonFlyBSD allow me to write code like the above example?  Is
> > the messaging abstraction intended to be solely for the benefit of
> > the'guts' of the operating system, or will user programs be able to
> > use it as well - not just for writing more efficient code, but also
> > more*elegant* code?  Perhaps a stickier question still - will I
> > *ever* be able to write code like this in a *portable* way...?
> 
> yes, just it would not neccessarily be dragonflyBSD, that enables you
> to write it that way, but dbus[1].

Indeed!  Thanks for the link.

> in the end we might want a way to propagate
> these events from the kernel (your clock example maybe). this is
> perfectly possible, when a wrapper above dbus exists.
> additionally it should not be too hard to implement.

Yeah, that occurred to me shortly after I posted... the biggest hurdles
are not really at the OS level - they're 1) finding and agreeing on an
API and 2) retrofitting every program (including the kernel) to generate
messages with that API when significant events happen.

1) is not too hard - D-BUS looks, maybe not perfect, but certainly
adequate for the task, so then the trick is getting enough programs to
agree on it.

2) is much harder, especially when you consider just how many events
during a complex program could be considered "significant", and whether
there is much overhead for generating an event.  But assuming the
overhead is very small, and that only the most obviously significant
events would to be made to generate messages (to start out), such a
system definately looks doable, and definately looks worth doing.

I need to look at D-BUS deeper before I start advocating that it should
have any connection or official adoption in DragonFlyBSD, of course...
but I'm hopeful :)

-Chris