Re: [java-gnome-hackers] Version of libgtk-java in GNOME Bindings 2.12

[Luis Villa <luis villa gmail com>]

On 8/25/05, Andrew Overholt <overholt redhat com> wrote:
> * Murray Cumming <murrayc murrayc com> [2005-08-25 10:51]:
> > [...] It looks like we'll have to ship libgtk-java 2.6 for GNOME 2.12.
> 
> That's really bad, IMHO.

I haven't followed the rules and procedures around the bindings
releases closely, so take what I'm saying with some grain of salt.

The release team exists to bless a specified set of software that
follows GNOME's rules for releases, which includes processes designed
to make software that we're all comfortable both using ourselves and
pushing as a development platform for others.

Unless you guys are actively porting lots of applications with wide
API coverage, and/or almost inhumanly good at writing test suites, it
is hard to imagine that a binding with only 1   release so far will
actually have a 'perfect' API, or even a reasonably stable one. Now, I
may be wrong, but if I'm wrong, it's because you guys are extremely
unusual.

So, yes, it is bad, and sounds like potentially very unfortunate for a
lot of people involved, but we do have these rules for a reason- not
just to piss on people. If the rules were unclear, or your
expectations about them were incorrect, then you guys and Murray need
to figure out where the rules are unclear and what can be done to
communicate them better, for the next release cycle.

In the meantime, the options for this cycle appear to be (1) ship the
old stuff or (2) ship new stuff that no one can reasonably guarantee
is API-stable or of high quality. Like you say, this is bad- a really
unpalatable set of options. But we're in the business of saying (more
so than anything else) 'this is API stable and of high quality', so it
is a pretty easy choice for the release team to make. The onus is on
you guys to persuade us (particularly Murray) we're wrong. You'll find
we're inclined (particularly if you've done a lot of work that we
somehow aren't seeing) to listen to you, but... having only done one
release is *the* gigantic warning flag for us. And it can't be any
other way.

Hope that clarifies the situation and where we are coming from-
Luis