Re: Prototype library plan

[Sander Vesik <sv117949 ireland sun com>]

On 25 Feb 2002, Havoc Pennington wrote:

[snip]

>    - Features can only have dependencies that are shared by the target
>      platform library. For example you can't use libgnome to implement
>      a feature targetted for GLib. (You can however depend on another
>      GLib-targetted libfoo feature, of course.)
>  

this probably comes down to real-time day-to-day coordination, but it is
good to avoid dependency structires from developing inside the library so
that moving the functionality out of "libfoo" does not become a major
undertaking.

>    - Features are in the "foo" namespace not in the platform library
>      namespace, and are renamed when they're moved.
> 
>    - The API/ABI of libfoo can change at any time, though it's
>      courteous to coordinate with app developers, cruft should not be
>      left in the prototype library for compatibility reasons.
> 

As long as "coordinate" at the very least involves posting to a public
list in advance and not just a "HEADS UP" on irc 8-)

>    - The purpose of this library is to test feature APIs and
>      implementations, so the library is expected to be a
>      work-in-progress, but bug reports and suggestions are extremely
>      welcome.
> 
>    - Discussion of features should happen on the mailing list for the
>      target platform library, but may also be cc'd to
>      gnome-libs-devel gnome org  Coordination of libfoo itself happens
>      on gnome-libs-devel gnome org 
> 
>    - libfoo will always depend on the latest stable branches of the
>      platform libraries, not on the development branches.
> 
> 
> We need a volunteer to "maintain" libfoo as a whole, though this
> involves just release gruntwork, since patch review is all done by
> platform library maintainers.
> 

I can volunteer to do this part.

> I'm not sure how "temporary hackarounds" fit in to libfoo;
> e.g. EelEllipsizingLabel has a totally different API but the same
> function as what will end up in GTK. It'd be kind of nice to put this
> sort of stuff in libfoo, perhaps, as long as a replacement for the
> hackaround is scheduled for inclusion in the platform library.  We
> don't want hacks of indefinite duration in libfoo.
> 
> Havoc
> 

	Sander

	I see a dark sail on the horizon
	Set under a dark cloud that hides the sun
	Bring me my Broadsword and clear understanding