random832@fastmail.us writes:
I don't see why you need to call an API to the desktop enviroment. The entire point of the spec is to provide compatibility _between_ implementations on the same filesystem - you can quit gnome and log into KDE and see the same trash. Python would just be a separate implementation that stands by itself.
But Python doesn't much care about similarities or differences between GNOME and KDE AFAICS -- the relationships to Mac and Windows are much more interesting. Emacs has had a policy of implementing everything itself for decades, and its mindshare has been decreasing for decades.[1] Many Emacs developers are cross-platform users, and the common cross-platform implementation is great for them. Most potential users are not, and the small differences between Emacs's behavior and the platform API mean that Emacs is not a separate implementation that stands by itself -- it's a bad implementation that spends a lot of time standing in a corner.[2] This is not the only reason for Emacs's relative loss of popularity, but it's definitely a common complaint -- and the complainers often never return to Emacs channels when it becomes clear that the Emacs way is the only way. In any case, the small platform differences and the odd problem with the spec mean that this is definitely suited for out-of-stdlib experimentation. Footnotes: [1] The former is a consequence of a policy that (official) Emacs on non-GNU systems can't have any feature that Emacs on the GNU System doesn't have -- if you want a move-to-trash command on Mac, you have to implement for GNU. [2] A traditional punishment for mischievous children, especially those who don't finish their chores or homework, where I grew up.