Features for Setup 2.0

[Stephane Peter]

As the current version of setup reaches stability, I believe it is time
to soon start working on the next major version (2.0). It will be a
major rewrite to clean things up, so I think we should start a new CVS
branch as soon as I commit my last set of changes from Codehost.

First we should discuss the goals for 2.0. Off the top of my head, here
are the most pressing ones :

- Rework the XML spec and make it more consistent. Also we should
definitely have a DTD for it.

- Complete overhaul of the UI back-end system to eliminate all code
duplication. This means that we'll have to come up with a brand new UI
Backend API, which will completely separate the UI interaction from the
actual installer functionality. I expect the design of the API to take
place on this mailing list for the next few weeks at least...

- Increased portability through the new UI backend API : especially
native MacOS X and maybe Qt ports, or any other UI toolkit worth looking
into (or that anybody wants to contribute).


Hopefully a lot of the current code can be reused, but it will need to
be thoroughly cleaned up. :P Maybe we can also include changes in
setupdb and the other related tools (loki_patch, loki_update, etc),
although I tend to think those are not as much in needed of a rewrite.

I'm welcome to more suggestions, of course, so please go ahead with your
ideas :-)

-- 
Stephane Peter
Sr. Software Engineer
Codehost, Inc.