Re: New rule

[Bastien Nocera <hadess hadess net>]

On Fri, 2010-10-22 at 01:48 +0900, Tristan Van Berkom wrote:
> On Thu, 2010-10-21 at 17:33 +0100, Richard Hughes wrote:
> > How about, if you plan to break API, it's mandatory to write entries
> > in the migration guide. Heck, even a quick email to the mailing list
> > explaining how to convert code might be nice.
> > 
> > I'm getting really tired from people changing big parts of the API a
> > few days before release, and then release teams expecting developers
> > to produce tarballs that actually work. gtk-2.91.1 is broken for
> > GtkComboBoxText, and gtk git master is broken for any GtkApplication
> > using application. libnotify just changed API in a major way, which
> > means we can't even use old tarballs until everything settles down.
> > devhelp won't compile, so we can't even use the viewer application.
> > 
> > Could somebody please port all my projects. I've got better things to
> > do than re-port all my stuff without a migration document. Again.
> 
> Initial thoughts, I suppose it's good to have a head start on 
> catching up to GTK+ 3.0 by porting early, however the cost of
> that is dealing with api shifts (all in all I think we should
> appreciate the effort but in no way require this of anyone,
> trying to catch up to GTK+ means you are helping us test new
> api paths; that's great).
> 
> However I expect a general latency of around 3 or 4 months
> after GTK+ 3.0 is actually released for very active projects to 
> catch up and port.
> 
> If anyone expects to release GNOME 3.0 apps with GTK+ 3.0 release
> all at the same time, I have to say that's a bit far fetched.
> 
> We should instead recommend that people port their applications
> to GTK+ 3.0 *once we have an API*; after 3.0 is released.

Except that we're talking about applications that are in the core
desktop (gnome-bluetooth, gnome-power-manager, gnome-color-manager,
gnome-packagekit, gnome-control-center), or in the default applications
(totem in my case, which also got bitten by the sizing changes, and that
I have no idea how to fix [1]).

Porting after GTK+ 3.0 is released would set us back a number of months.

And it doesn't fix our problems of applications being unportable to the
current GTK+ 3.x branch either.

[1]: Thanks for the very helpful "RTFM" I got from the hackfest, if I
could build devhelp, I surely would read those.