Re: GNOME Online Accounts 3.34 won't have documents support

On Wed, 2019-01-23 at 12:25 +0000, Allan Day wrote:
> Emmanuele Bassi <ebassi@gmail.com> wrote:
> ...
> > > This approach isn't new, and you can read more detail here:
> > > https://wiki.gnome.org/Projects/GnomeOnlineAccounts/Goals
> > > 
> > 
> > I know the rationale. I never particularly agreed with it, because
> > it felt like an ex post rationalisation about not having third
> > party modules, and getting people to commit functionality upstream.
> > ...
> 
> I don't think that was the reason. At least, it's not what's been on
> my mind, and I don't remember others putting that view forward.
> 
> The main factor has always been about how we handle identity. If we
> give online accounts access to 3rd party apps, we're giving them
> access to the GNOME keys. They appear as "GNOME" to online providers
> and their access is bundled up with our own. As a result, we lose the
> ability to ensure that the GNOME keys are being used in accordance
> with providers' terms and conditions.
> 
> From a design perspective that's never been something we've wanted to
> do, both from a branding and identity perspective, as well as from a
> "oh shit we can't access Google any more, because some random app did
> something they didn't like".

GNOME apps are not, and were never the only consumers of the gnome-
online-accounts capabilities, and, correct me if I'm wrong, but the
only problems we had with applications doing something that wasn't
liked in the past were in *platform* components, not even in core
applications.

> > What I'm objecting to is the wishy-washy approach of telling
> > people: "Sure, you can keep working on Documents, it's just not
> > going to be installed any more" without telling the whole story.
> > 
> > If Documents is removed, then all the Documents integration within
> > GNOME is also removed, which means that the project *in its current
> > incarnation* should just be archived. People should be encouraged
> > to fork it, if they find it useful, and implement that integration
> > inside Documents itself. This gives the proper context and
> > communicates the proper expectations to people willing to maintain
> > the Documents code base.
> 
> If you think something can be done better, just suggest how it can be
> done better.

Flip it on its head and please suggest why, nowadays, any application
developer, whether for a GNOME application or a third-party, would
spend time integrating services into gnome-online-accounts, or using
gnome-online-accounts for functionality that's somewhat core to the
application experience, when the rug can be pulled from under your app
at any point?