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It would appear that the pending (0321) mask of Qt3 will break |
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sci-misc/qcad, sci-chemistry/xdrawchem and x11-misc/glunarclock. |
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|
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These are fairly significant science packages for which there are no current |
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(qt4) or "equivalent" packages. While on one hand it may not do much harm |
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to mask Qt3 based games packages (which I believe has already been done), it |
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is entirely another thing when one goes masking significant science packages |
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for which there may be no substitutes (e.g. qcad and xdrawchem). |
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|
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So, an end user (e.g. a Gentoo user who is not a Gentoo developer) is forced |
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to ask: |
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a) Has research been done to determine whether there are replacements for |
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these packages and why aren't they suggested in the mask comments? |
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b) If one is forced to run Qt3 in order to support these older packages, is |
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there *good* documentation on how to do this (and why isn't this suggested |
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in the mask comments)? |
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|
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While I am in general in favor of migrating to the most recent packages, |
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there are cases where packages will still work reliably well with older |
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libraries (and would likely work forever if there were "static" build |
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options). So before there is a rush to remove ebuilds it should be asked |
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whether it is possible to produce a static build and/or whether there is a |
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clear path provided for the retention of "legacy" packages? |
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|
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Thank you, |
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Robert Bradbury |