Re: GNOME and Ubuntu GNOME

[Bastien Nocera <hadess hadess net>]

On Sat, 2014-09-27 at 20:32 -0400, Liam R E Quin wrote:
> On Sat, 27 Sep 2014 08:57:19 -0500
> Michael Catanzaro <mcatanzaro gnome org> wrote:
> > [...] Whereas the versions of your
> > applications can probably vary without TOO much trouble, you should only
> > ever update core components like gnome-shell, gnome-settings-daemon, and
> > gnome-control-center at the same time. gnome-tweak-tool is another one
> > where something is likely to break if not upgraded in lockstep.
>
> How could they be made more robust against this sort of problem?

By fixing the packages to not accept mixed versions.

> > These
> > communicate over unstable D-Bus interfaces and assume they're
> > communicating with the corresponding version of the other
> components.
> Why don't they ask, and refuse to run if they depend on the other
> parts so closely. But in that case what's the advantage of using dbus?
>
> It's already a pain for users that things like themes and shell
> extensions are so closely tied to the gnome-shell version, but at
> least they just refuse to load rather than breaking in unpredictable
> ways.

It doesn't break in unpredictable ways. It breaks in very very
predictable ways. We build and release GNOME components together because
they work together. gnome-settings-daemon 3.14 for example implements
the necessary backend for the per-network sharing in the Sharing panel.
Making the latter check for versions would mean an explosion of the test
matrix (it would need to check for versions of gnome-settings-daemon,
gnome-user-share, rygel and vino).

If you choose to mix'n'match without thorough QA, you're going to end
keeping both pieces.