Re: Suggestions for API/ABI Process

[Elijah Newren <newren gmail com>]

On 8/1/05, Brian Cameron <Brian Cameron sun com> wrote:

> 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.

Whoa...weird. http://live.gnome.org/ReleasePlanning_2fTwoPointEleven_2fDesktop
places it in the desktop, so does
http://www.gnome.org/start/2.7/desktop/ and
http://www.gnome.org/start/2.9/desktop/.  None of the corresponding
pages for the platform list libgnomeprint.

So, does anyone know what the mistake was?  I.e. did we list it in the
wrong release set on the web pages, or did we place it into the wrong
release set on the ftp site?

> 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.

Agreed.

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

Sweet, thanks.

Cheers,
Elijah