Re: GNOME 3.0 in March 2011

[Colin Walters <walters verbum org>]

On Sat, Aug 7, 2010 at 5:12 AM, Tomeu Vizoso <tomeu sugarlabs org> wrote:
>
> I'm a bit concerned about the port to python3+gtk3+introspection being
> a bit too big of a stretch. Python developers traditionally are a bit
> less "dauntless" than other developer communities and many will be put
> off by having to build part of the stack while their distros of choice
> don't ship them.

Makes sense; I agree it's obviously a lot harder if you have to build stuff.

> This could mean that in 8 months from now distros would start shipping
> Python 3 and Gtk 3 and only then apps would start to be ported. But
> then, distros wouldn't want to make Python 3 and Gtk 3 the default as
> apps wouldn't have been ported yet, catch 22.
>
> Alternatively, if distros were able to support the combination
> Python2+Gtk2+PyGObjectWithIntrospection in the next release, most
> people could start porting to introspection during the next cycle,
> then porting to Python 3+Gtk 3 in the next one.

Hmm, but then we'd be asking application authors to port twice within
a year.  And realistically, some would, some wouldn't so we'd end up
supporting 3 combinations:

Python2 + Gtk2 + pygtk
Python2 + Gtk2 + pygobject-introspection
Python3 + Gtk3 + pygobject-introspection

Remember Python 3 is really looming now; 2.7 was the last release in
the 2.x line.  We can put it off - but it's just that, putting it off;
next year the prospect of having to port things will be raised.

(Note I'm just floating this idea - like all engineering it has
tradeoffs and I think we should have the discussion; I'm not saying
there aren't also other viable paths.)