How Goes it with Breezy?

James Wilkinson ubuntu at westexe.demon.co.uk
Wed May 11 22:29:01 UTC 2005


John DeCarlo wrote:
> 1. What are dbus?

*Is*: it's singular. It comes from "d", short for "desktop", and "bus",
short for "omnibus", which comes from the Latin "omnibus" meaning "to or
for, by, with or from everybody" which is a very good description!

It's a piece of software with associated bindings that allows software
to "broadcast" information to none, one or more "listeners", and for
those "listeners" to respond.

Imagine that a USB scanner is plugged in. One listener might be
responsible for creating a device node and giving it suitable
permissions for any currently logged-in users. Another might potentially
show an icon somewhere in the desktop environment. I don't think xsane
currently listens to dbus, but it could be adapted so that it
automatically realises that a new scanner has been plugged in.

For more information, see http://www.freedesktop.org/Software/dbus

Hope this helps,

James "transport of delight" Wilkinson.

-- 
E-mail address: james | "During the shutdown period I received not one
@westexe.demon.co.uk  | single support call, confirming my theory that my
                      | network is indeed perfect, and that all faults are
                      | user-inflicted."




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