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authorHavoc Pennington <hp@redhat.com>2006-11-07 06:13:53 +0000
committerHavoc Pennington <hp@redhat.com>2006-11-07 06:13:53 +0000
commit151b3aaaeff42b76ecf4bd02aa28cda3ed98a501 (patch)
tree88e435d7bf1c7450c358687cb02ae66f6f46a8d7 /doc
parent4c31ea9ee25282cf329e4b46eaa0454fd8a8256d (diff)
2006-11-07 Havoc Pennington <hp@redhat.com>
* doc/dbus-specification.xml, doc/dbus-faq.xml, README: various documentation updates. Bump faq/spec versions (not to 1.0; I don't think the spec will be "finished"/1.0 when we ship the 1.0 library).
Diffstat (limited to 'doc')
-rw-r--r--doc/TODO2
-rw-r--r--doc/dbus-faq.xml30
-rw-r--r--doc/dbus-specification.xml21
3 files changed, 39 insertions, 14 deletions
diff --git a/doc/TODO b/doc/TODO
index ace86872..7b6e1191 100644
--- a/doc/TODO
+++ b/doc/TODO
@@ -8,6 +8,8 @@ Important for 1.0
- the spec should say "the protocol will not be changed incompatibly after Month DD, YYYY"
+ - the README documents the configure flags, should check this for being in sync with reality
+
Important for 1.0 GLib Bindings
===
diff --git a/doc/dbus-faq.xml b/doc/dbus-faq.xml
index 47072e9e..07324049 100644
--- a/doc/dbus-faq.xml
+++ b/doc/dbus-faq.xml
@@ -7,8 +7,8 @@
<article id="index">
<articleinfo>
<title>D-Bus FAQ</title>
- <releaseinfo>Version 0.1</releaseinfo>
- <date>22 January 2005</date>
+ <releaseinfo>Version 0.2</releaseinfo>
+ <date>07 November 2006</date>
<authorgroup>
<author>
<firstname>Havoc</firstname>
@@ -38,10 +38,14 @@
</question>
<answer>
<para>
- This is probably best answered by reading the D-Bus <ulink url="dbus-tutorial.html">tutorial</ulink>. In
+ This is probably best answered by reading the D-Bus <ulink url="dbus-tutorial.html">tutorial</ulink> or
+ the introduction to the <ulink url="dbus-specification.html">specification</ulink>. In
short, it is a system consisting of 1) a wire protocol for exposing a
typical object-oriented language/framework to other applications; and
2) a bus daemon that allows applications to find and monitor one another.
+ Phrased differently, D-Bus is 1) an interprocess communication (IPC) system and 2) some higher-level
+ structure (lifecycle tracking, service activation, security policy) provided by two bus daemons,
+ one systemwide and one per-user-session.
</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
@@ -54,12 +58,13 @@
</question>
<answer>
<para>
- D-Bus has not yet reached 1.0. The <ulink url="README">README</ulink>
- file has a discussion of the API/ABI stability guarantees before and
- after 1.0. In short, there are no guarantees before 1.0, and stability
- of both protocol and reference library will be maintained after 1.0.
- As of January 2005 we don't expect major protocol or API changes prior
- to the 1.0 release, but anything is possible.
+ The low-level library "libdbus" and the protocol specification are considered
+ ABI stable. The <ulink url="README">README</ulink>
+ file has a discussion of the API/ABI stability guarantees.
+ Higher-level bindings (such as those for Qt, GLib, Python, Java, C#) each
+ have their own release schedules and degree of maturity, not linked to
+ the low-level library and bus daemon release. Check the project page for
+ the binding you're considering to understand that project's policies.
</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
@@ -144,6 +149,13 @@
are normally launched according to the bus name they will
have.
</para>
+ <para>
+ People often misuse the word "service" for any
+ bus name, but this tends to be ambiguous and confusing so is discouraged.
+ In the D-Bus docs we try to use "service" only when talking about
+ programs the bus knows how to launch, i.e. a service always has a
+ .service file.
+ </para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
diff --git a/doc/dbus-specification.xml b/doc/dbus-specification.xml
index 1e4ac4f5..e1b02f38 100644
--- a/doc/dbus-specification.xml
+++ b/doc/dbus-specification.xml
@@ -7,8 +7,8 @@
<article id="index">
<articleinfo>
<title>D-Bus Specification</title>
- <releaseinfo>Version 0.11</releaseinfo>
- <date>6 February 2005</date>
+ <releaseinfo>Version 0.12</releaseinfo>
+ <date>7 November 2006</date>
<authorgroup>
<author>
<firstname>Havoc</firstname>
@@ -114,9 +114,20 @@
</itemizedlist>
D-Bus is not intended to be a generic IPC system for any possible
application, and intentionally omits many features found in other
- IPC systems for this reason. D-Bus may turn out to be useful
- in unanticipated applications, but future versions of this
- spec and the reference implementation probably will not
+ IPC systems for this reason.
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ At the same time, the bus daemons offer a number of features not found in
+ other IPC systems, such as single-owner "bus names" (similar to X
+ selections), on-demand startup of services, and security policies.
+ In many ways, these features are the primary motivation for developing
+ D-Bus; other systems would have sufficed if IPC were the only goal.
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ D-Bus may turn out to be useful in unanticipated applications, but future
+ versions of this spec and the reference implementation probably will not
incorporate features that interfere with the core use cases.
</para>