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

[Alex Alexander]

On 20 Feb 2014 10:12, "Michał Górny" <mgorny@g.o> wrote:
>
> Dnia 2014-02-20, o godz. 01:44:17
> Steev Klimaszewski <steev@g.o> napisał(a):
>
> > 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.
>
> Except that now users have to use USE='gtk gtk3' to get GUIs in random
> applications that support only one toolkit. And then handle
> REQUIRED_USE mess for packages that support choosing one of the two.
>
> > Just because gtk+ 3 is the latest, does not mean it's the greatest,
> > and I really wish people would realize that newest != bestest.
>
> Yet it's supported, unlike GTK+2. I really wish people would actually
> step up to fix bugs when the time comes rather than shouting about their
> right to choose.

The main idea here is to create a system that is consistent.

Yes, gtk2 is still used and IMO we need to provide support for it as long
as there are apps linked to it with no real alternatives.

But we also need to think about the future. The situation today is a total
mess.

In an ideal world, gtk3 would replace gtk2 everywhere in an instant, making
this discussion pointless. Unfortunately, this is not the case.

Versioned USE flags solve most of the problems with minimum fuss, while
paving the road for a much cleaner gtk3 -> gtk4 transition.

We don't really need generic use flags anyway. Adding gtk3 to your USE is
really easy and I expect our user base to be able to handle these things
with ease.

Alex