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On Sun, 2012-06-10 at 04:38 +0200, hasufell wrote: |
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> Bug #420433 lately introduced the discussion again if and when we should |
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> support older (deprecated) toolkit versions. |
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> |
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> As for the named bug it may make sense to support it, cause the gtk3 |
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> useflag would lead to different (reduced) functionality of that package. |
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> (but that shall not be the discussion here) |
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> |
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> Generally I think gtk3 useflags should be avoided and only be a |
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> workaround during migration to gtk+:3. Optimally gtk+:3 should always be |
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> forced when available and not leading to major issues. |
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> On the other hand... if gtk+:3 implementation is broken I would suggest |
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> to simply force gtk+:2 without any gtk3 useflag. So we have ONE working |
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> toolkit version. |
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> |
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> Introducing stuff like gtk3 useflag will let users think this is about |
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> choice, but it's actually not (gtk+:2 is not being developed any longer |
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> afais). |
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> |
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> Would it make sense to add a tracker for packages currently using gtk3 |
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> useflag, so this will not become a habit and only be a workaround? |
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The Gnome team's recommendation is to avoid gtk3 or gtk2 USE flags. |
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|
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For libraries, if possible, try splitting gtk2 and gtk3 support into |
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different slots (see net-libs/webkit-gtk for an example; the gtk2-based |
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versions have -r2xx revision numbers and go in slot 2, while the |
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gtk3-based versions have -r3xx revision numbers and go in slot 3). |
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Unfortunately, for a few libraries, this splitting is difficult to do in |
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a sane and maintainable manner, so then a gtk3 USE flag could be the |
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least bad solution. |
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For applications, just pick one version of gtk. If a particular version |
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works better, use only that one (e.g. if building an application against |
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gtk3 would result in reduced functionality or introduce crashes, or if |
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upstream calls it experimental, you should probably stick with gtk2 for |
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now). If the results of building against gtk2 or gtk2 are mostly |
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equivalent, I suggest only building against gtk3, because gtk2 is |
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basically legacy code that doesn't get much attention from gtk upstream. |
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-Alexandre |
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