Re: Fwd: Plans for GTK+ Bundles for win32 and win64?

[Martyn Russell <martyn lanedo com>]

On 08/09/11 11:39, Alberto Ruiz wrote:
> That's a really bad idea for several reasons. First, we don't have the
> resources to test ABI compatibility on windows, there has been cases
> where some versions have crashed windows apps.

You mean app X uses GTK+ version A and version B is on the system = BOOM 
right?

That's really about getting the package management/version management 
right IMO. Right now everyone has to do that themselves or bundle it - 
which is far from ideal.

> Second, Windows is not as good at managing shared .dlls as Linux is. It
> can become a nightmare. You need to either wire up the Side by Side
> plumbing or mess with %PATH% to get things right, and both approaches
> have their own set of problems.

Everything on Windows is a nightmare here :)

You would need to set up the %PATH% correctly if you used a specific 
version of GTK+ or not (from my experience). I am not suggesting we put 
the dlls in a common path and even then that's never enough (unless 
things drastically changed since I did it).

> In the Qt world and other toolkits, most people just bundle their
> dependencies. That's the standard and the right thing to do on Windows.
> Application developers are in charge of delivering a Gtk+ (and other
> deps) version that works for their app.

This does have it's advantages too and what I ended up doing also. But 
it does feel quite wasteful. There is quite a battle in Windows GTK+ app 
developers getting their software out of the door with this approach and 
indeed the one I was suggesting.

> Third, and the most important. Windows has no package manager. You
> should not delegate on users the responsibility of making sure that a
> working copy of GTK is installed. This is annoying enough with Java.
> A .zip bundle (and maybe some facilities to shove that into your app
> installer) is the best approach for now IMHO.

Actually, YES. :) The absence of a package manager (forgetting John's 
email for the moment) is regrettable but including a package inside your 
installer which installs GTK+ is not a bad idea and if that was provided 
AND apps could set their paths up appropriately, it's better than having 
to do the whole installer crap for GTK+ per project. It's just one more 
level of modularisation that helps app developers IMO.

--
Regards,
Martyn

Founder and CEO of Lanedo GmbH.