Re: [gentoo-dev] RFD: new global USE flag gtk3

[Samuli Suominen]

On 20/02/14 18:27, Tom Wijsman wrote:
> On Thu, 20 Feb 2014 11:26:18 +0200
> Samuli Suominen <ssuominen@g.o> wrote:
>
>> On 20/02/14 10:47, Steev Klimaszewski wrote:
>>> On Thu, 2014-02-20 at 10:40 +0200, Samuli Suominen wrote:
>>>> On 20/02/14 09:44, Steev Klimaszewski wrote:
>>>>> On Thu, 2014-02-20 at 07:55 +0200, Samuli Suominen wrote:
>>>>>> On 20/02/14 00:23, Ulrich Mueller wrote:
>>>>>>> Following up to today's QA meeting: The gtk3 USE flag is used by
>>>>>>> 27 packages, so I suggest making it a global flag:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> gtk3 - Add support for x11-libs/gtk+ (The GIMP Toolkit) version
>>>>>>> 3
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Ulrich
>>>>>> that would suggest it's fine to use, and is anything but
>>>>>> temporary
>>>>>>
>>>>>> -1 from here
>>>>>>
>>>>> MATE desktop (which I hope to bring in to Portage soon) can be
>>>>> built against gtk+ 2 or gtk+ 3, and upstream supports doing both,
>>>>> so +1 from me.  Just because gtk+ 3 is the latest, does not mean
>>>>> it's the greatest, and I really wish people would realize that
>>>>> newest != bestest.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>> Then you pick whatever is best supported for MATE, and ship it
>>>> using that. Later when they have completed their support for
>>>> GTK+-3, and it's the best supported, you ship that. It's not
>>>> rocket science.
>>>>
>>> OR, since I'm the maintainer, I decide that I'm willing to deal with
>>> both, instead of you telling me that I need to pick one or the
>>> other. Upstream says both are supported and viable, and I'm willing
>>> to deal with the headaches.  Just because you're unwilling doesn't
>>> mean others aren't.  kthx.
>>>
>>>
>> Bye bye distribution level consistency :-(
>>
>> It's sad that few stubborn developers can do that.
>>
>> - Samuli
>>
> "'Ey! Have you heard about it. Gentoo doesn't provide X with support
> for Y, then what are their USE flags even for; what a shame, ..."
>
> If people want to support and use multiple things, let them do so. It is
> pretty much what Gentoo and its philosophy are about; which somewhat
> can be summarized as providing choices such that we fit the users'
> need, and not force our one true way upon them...
>
> Greetings from someone who runs GNOME 3 and MATE simultaneously; you can
> intentionally break it, but why would you? It takes away our happiness.
> On the other hand, there's the part where you want to break it for a
> reason, perhaps for your happiness; but then I'd like to hear why.
>

So, no more setting USE="gtk" and assuming the best packaged software
will be get installed,
be it with what version of the toolkit, 1, 2 or 3
Instead, now you have to selectively do the maintainers job for figuring
out which one
is the best supported one
Despite already picking up a modern theme with both GTK+ 2.x and GTK+
3.x looks, now you
might end up with half-crippled software just because some stubborn
people choose the
looks, not the functionality, to be their motivation

Such people really don't deserve to own a packager status if they can't
take the time to
determine / examine the package's best supported graphical toolkit
If multiple ones with similar feature set is supported, then the latest
toolkit is preferred

But seems like I'm repeating common sense which the GNOME guideline
layed out long ago
Bunch of new QA developers shoudn't have any power to override that