Re: Proposing module: PyGTK

["Murray Cumming" <murrayc murrayc com>]

>> I think that we gain nothing if we move a module from Bindings to
>> Desktop,
>> but I think that it would undermine the Bindings release set. I am very
>> much against it.
>
> I somewhat disagree here. Should we let stuff in the Desktop suite depend
> on
> anything in the Bindings suite, in the same way as the Platform suite?

Of course not, and I don' think that is implied.

> Then
> we'd have to support stuff written in fifteen different languages, if the
> Bindings suite is a rousing success.

The question of what language is accceptable for a Desktop module is a
separate issue, I believe.

> We should have considered this issue more closely when setting up the
> expectations of the Bindings suite. I think it's best bet is to represent
> a
> selection of reliable, API/ABI compat bindings for third-party application
> developers to choose from. So that's unrelated to our internal rules for
> modules in each suite.
>
> So should we list pygtk in Desktop and Bindings?

Again, I see no reason to put it in Desktop. It's already in a release
set. It's already on our schedule.

Many some of the confusion here is based upon some idea that the whole
Desktop release set should depend on the whole Platform release set and
that it would somehow make sense for the whole Desktop release set to
depend on the whole Bindings release set. I don't think that's a useful or
helpful idea.

> Kinda ugly, but doable.
> Should we just document the fact that pygtk is welcome as a non-optional
> dependency (as some modules already optionally depend on it) in the
> Desktop
> suite, and leave it at that?

Yes. That is what I have tried to do. What does it take to make that
consenus even more clear? A GEP?

Note that no such process was required for C++ in gnomemeeting and
epiphany, or for perl in gnome-system-tools, though they don't use the
bindings.

> Should we embrace the idea that the Bindings
> suite is equivalent to the Platform, and we should accept dependencies on
> any of these bindings in the Desktop release?

No, there is no consensus to allow any and all languages, and there is no
consensus to allow some particular languages.

The simple reality is that we must respond to maintainers at the time when
they decide that they would like to use a binding. That's how the "pygtk
consensus" has arisen. If another maintainer wants to use yet another
binding, then we must deal with that issue then. That's the imperfect, but
good-enough, way that GNOME (maintainers) makes decisions.

Murray Cumming
murrayc murrayc com
www.murrayc.com
www.openismus.com