New module decisions for 3.0

[Vincent Untz <vuntz gnome org>]

Hi,

The release team had quite some discussion in May about modules and
modulesets for 3.0, and we managed to take some decisions!

Many thanks to the people who contributed to the discussion on the list,
and to the authors and maintainers of the proposed modules!


Short summary
=============

Please make sure to read the details for modules that are of interest to
you, as the release team generally comments on why a module is approved
or rejected, with recommendations that we'd like to see followed.

Was pre-approved last cycle:
 - dconf (desktop)

Approved:
 - caribou (desktop)
 - gnome-color-manager (desktop)
 - gnome-icon-theme-symbolic (desktop)
 - gnome-shell (desktop)
 - gjs (bindings / platform)
 - gobject-introspection (bindings / platform)
 - libfolks (external dependency)
 - mutter (desktop)
 - opentts / speech-dispatcher (external dependency)
 - telepathy-logger (external dependency)
 - Rygel (desktop)
 - udev (external dependency)

Rejected:
 - clutter-core (desktop)
 - GNOME Activity Journal (desktop)
 - libappindicator (external dependency)
 - mousetrap (desktop) -- please propose again for 3.2

Removed:
 - gnome-speech (replaced by opentts)
 - gok (replaced by caribou)

No decision needed:
 - deja-dup (desktop) -- will be in Applications
 - json-glib (external dependency) -- clutter not approved
 - libsane (external dependency) -- simple-scan in Applications
 - pdfmod (desktop) -- will be in Applications
 - simple-scan (desktop) -- will be in Applications
 - zeitgeist (external dependency) -- GNOME Activity Journal not approved


Some additional notes
=====================

 + Since we don't have HAL anymore, we need to clearly document what
   code needs to be ported to various platforms. See the wiki page:
   http://live.gnome.org/action/diff/TwoPointThirtyone/PortabilityMatrix

 + gir-repository is deprecated and gobject-introspection support should
   be moved to individual modules.

 + more discussion will happen for the moduleset reorganization, and we
   expect to see many modules moved from Desktop to Applications; some
   deprecated modules will also be removed from our modulesets during
   that work.


Details
=======

 + caribou (desktop)
   - replacement for gok, that is using corba
   - it's still at an early stage of development
   - some development will be funded by Andalucia in the next few months
   - the accessibility team is putting resources to improve caribou
   - some work will need to be done to properly integrate it in the
     overview mode of gnome-shell
   => approved, but we'll closely monitor the development so we can
      properly announce expectations to users
   => this means gok can be removed

 + clutter-core (desktop)
   - needed for gnome-shell and other some modules
   - it is still not hosted on the GNOME infrastructure
   - the copyright assignment is still required
   => rejected: we keep clutter-core as an external dependency until
      those issues get fixed
   => we'd like to see the issue around copyright assignment resolved
      as fast as possible

 + deja-dup (desktop)
   - GNOMEy application
   => no decision needed, should live in Applications

 + gjs (desktop)
   - needed for gnome-shell
   - on seed vs gjs:
     - we don't feel we need to choose between the two now, although we
       believe that they need to be completely compatible in the long
       term if we want to keep both.
     - we encourage developers to keep working on gnome-js-common
   => approved, but with other bindings (not desktop)

 + GNOME Activity Journal (desktop)
   - the original design idea is one we want to see happen during the
     GNOME 3 development.
   - needs more integration with the rest of the desktop and the overall
     GNOME design; right now, it feels too much like a standalone
     application.
   - the team might need to work a bit more closely with other GNOME
     teams for the integration.
   => rejected

 + gnome-color-manager (desktop)
   - good integration
   => approved

 + gnome-icon-theme-symbolic (desktop)
   - monochrome icons for osd and system status area
   => approved

 + gnome-shell (desktop)
   - good feedback in general
   - needs more frequent releases
   - we'd like to see a clear roadmap of what's going to be in 3.0, and
     what's going to be in 3.2
   - application integration in the shell: GtkApplication should enter
     GTK+ master next week
   => approved
   => we'll collect feedback from distributions to know what might block
      them to adopt it as default shell for GNOME; it's likely that
      it'll be drivers issues if it happens, though.

 + gobject-introspection (bindings)
   - gir-repository is deprecated and gobject-introspection support
     should be moved to individual modules.
   - gobject-introspection is not going to be merged in glib right now.
   - it'd be useful to have a status update on where bindings stand with
     the use of introspection.
   => approved

 + json-glib (external dependency)
   - needed for clutter
   => not needed since clutter is not approved. If another module will
      need it for 3.0, this decision will get revisited.

 + libappindicator (external dependency)
   - it doesn't integrate with gnome-shell
   - probably depends on GtkApplication, and would need integration in
     GTK+ itself.
   - we wished there was some constructive discussion around it, pushed
     by the libappindicator developers; but it didn't happen.
   - there's nothing in GNOME needing it.
   => rejected for the reasons stated above

 + libfolks (external dependency)
   - will help implement highly-requested features
   => approved, but we want to point out that we need stable tarballs
      of libfolks to use it as an external dependency

 + libsane (external dependency)
   - needed for simple-scan
   => not needed since simple-scan will be dealt as Applications.

 + mousetrap (desktop)
   - interesting accessibility tool
   - it might change quite a bit, especially with a potential merge with
     opengazer
   - might not be completely ready, but good work is going on
   => rejected for 3.0, but we encourage the mousetrap team to keep
      working on it, to see what can be done with opengazer and to
      propose it again for 3.2.

 + mutter (desktop)
   - needed for gnome-shell
   => approved

 + opentts / speech-dispatcher (external dependency)
   - opentts development might fold back in speech dispatcher
   - we trust the choice of the accessibility team here
   - orca can already use speech-dispatcher
   => approved
   => we encourage the opentts team to work with the speech dispatcher
     people to avoid the fork if possible.
   => this means gnome-speech can be removed

 + pdfmod (desktop)
   - GNOMEy application
   => no decision needed, should live in Applications

 + Rygel (desktop)
   - works well, and is a nice thing to have nowadays
   - UI will be merged with gnome-user-share at some point
   => approved

 + simple-scan (desktop)
   - GNOMEy application
   => no decision needed, should live in Applications

 + telepathy-logger (external dependency)
   - will be used by all applications displaying messages from IM
   - especially useful for IM integration in GNOME Shell
   => approved

 + udev (external dependency)
   - it actually already is a dependency in various modules (cheese,
     NetworkManager, rhythmbox, etc.)
   - this is a linux-only dependency
   => approved
   => to help non-Linux platforms, we'll provide a portability matrix to
      list the modules where platform-specific work is needed

 + zeitgeist (external dependency)
   - needed for GNOME Activity Journal
   => not needed since GNOME Activity Journal is not approved. If
      another module will need it for 3.0, this decision will get
      revisited.

Thanks,

Vincent

-- 
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