Re: Suggestions for API/ABI Process

[Brian Cameron <Brian Cameron Sun COM>]

Elijah:

> >    If the answer is libgnomeprint* isn't Stable because it is not a
> >    part of the Platform interfaces, then this might not be a great
> >    answer.  It's hard to imagine that ISV's won't want access to
> >    the library that gives programs access to printing.  Do libraries
> >    migrate from Desktop to Platform when the GNOME community
> >    recognizes that ISV's might need to use the library?
>  
> Moving to the platform if stability assurances can't be met wouldn't
> do any good.  But yes, there is a goal to make libraries in the
> desktop which others would want to use stable enough to move to the
> platform.  My guess is that libgnomeprint is close to this level
> (though I'm not very familiar with the library).  libwnck is another
> that some people have wanted to become more stable (but it just isn't
> there yet and will need much more time before it gets there).

I reviewed the modules in the Platform category for GNOME 2.10.2:

   ftp://ftp.gnome.org/pub/gnome/platform/2.10/2.10.2/sources/

and these include:

   GConf, ORBit2, at-spi, atk, audiofile, esound, gail, glib,
   gnome-mime-data, gnome-vfs, gtk+, gtk-doc, intltool, libIDL,
   libart_lgpl, libbonobo, libbonoboui, libgnome, libgnomecanvas,
   libgnomeprint, libgnomeprintui, libgnomeui, libxml2, libxslt,
   pango, and pkgconfig.

So, it seems libgnomeprint/libgnomeprintui have already made it into
the Platform.  I can't tell when it was moved into Platform since
the ftp site only goes back to 2.7.2 and its been there since then.
From the discussion, it sounds like being in the Platform category
means that the library is considered Stable and is under API/ABI
rules.

In past discussion on desktop-devel-list, I got the feeling that
some of these libraries (ORBit2, libgnome*, perhaps others) shouldn't
really be used by ISV's.  Therefore, it probably isn't okay to make a
blanket statement that all platform libraries are intended for ISV
use.  How do ISV's know which libraries to use?  I'm guessing we
need a separate list somewhere.

I'll update the http://live.gnome.org/InterfaceSpecification
website to include this information once all this is more clear.

Brian