Re: GNOME 3.0 in March 2011

[Tomeu Vizoso <tomeu sugarlabs org>]

On Sat, Aug 7, 2010 at 14:07, Colin Walters <walters verbum org> wrote:
> 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.)

I certainly like your proposal, but is the Python GNOME community
(this includes distros) strong enough to coordinate all that needs to
happen to do the switch for next Spring?

Regards,

Tomeu