Re: GNOME 2.4.1 and 2.5 schedule

[Callum <callum physics otago ac nz>]

> > And in my left ear, I hear Alex complaining about the size of the
> > tarball :)
> > 
> > gnome-games is big enough already, and stand-alone games will mean that
> > they will be maintained or die. Nobody wants their pretty game removed,
> > but they don't want to maintain it, lazy buggers.
> 
> Oh, I think Callum was already proposing nuking some of the old games,
> so I guess I was making an unstated assumption that it would get smaller
> before it got bigger. 
> 
There are two size related issues for gnome-games. One is obviously the
tarball size, but that has been steadily decreasing since 2.2 and is now
8.4M. My official policy is to keep the gzipped tarball below ten,
although I think revising that target down to nine is worthwhile. So there
is room for another game or two.

The bigger problem is the fact that there are currently 16 separate games
with 16 separate code bases. Even a minor change in an API or a
new-and-improved method for doing something leads to the nightmare of
updating 16 different files in almost, but not quite, the same way. 

Unfortunately there are a million games out there that could be included
and there is no good policy for what should be included and what
shouldn't. Currently gnome-games is just a bundle of minor amusements,
which is a nice thing, but doesn't give the package much form. Some days I
think it should be a "technology demonstration" package where we try and
put in just a few, well coded, games that show off how to do things in
GNOME. Unfortunately those well coded games aren't currently in
gnome-games.

No one has approached me or the games-list about including monkey-bubble
or monster masher in gnome-games so I haven't given it too much
thought. If they are included then there is going to have to be some
serious thought given to splitting up gnome-games or just dumping about
half of the games.

 - Callum