Re: RANT!!! (was Re: ORBit and gint64 Re: ORBit gmake fails)

[Tom Tromey <tromey cygnus com>]

>> - Configure & install the latest glib from CVS.
>> - Configure & install the latest ORBit from CVS (I committed the
>> changes this afternoon).

Todd> Elliot, not to pick on you, but can I again voice my displeasure
Todd> at this method of notifying people of when they need to
Todd> recompile logically superior systems from CVS?

Todd> If not rpm-based dependencies, then how about a little "if
Todd> VERSION < 3.14 then ERROR" sprinkled here and there for the sake
Todd> of us mere mortals?

I think the basic problem is that the CVS repository is in a
continuous state of change.  It's not like the glib version number is
incremented with every checkin.

I just take it as a given that if I have certain sorts of compilation
problems, then step number one is to update and reinstall glib and
gtk.

I agree that this is a pain.  For instance, on my wimpy box it takes
quite a while to do this.  But I don't see it as a fundamental
problem.  I see it as the price of working out of the repository.

Todd> Or maybe some sort of "you need to recompile now" message which
Todd> is more formal than an unformatted notice in one of the 10,000
Todd> CHANGELOG's sprinkled through the CVS tree?

The problem is that it is actually hard to determine when you should
send out such a message.  This is particularly true when you are
working on some layer that is removed from the basic infrastructure.
For instance, I certainly don't read every single Gtk+ commit message.
So it's possible I would inadvertantly use some new API without
realizing that it is new, and hence not know to send out a "you must
rebuild Gtk+" message.

Todd> Heck, I'm more than happy to do a "make
Todd> $everything_that_needs_remaking" before I sit down to a session
Todd> of playing with gnome, provided that there is some way for me to
Todd> do that other than to read the CVS messages in addition to the
Todd> mailing list, which is voluminous enough.  It needs to be
Todd> reliable and not require manual intervention.

If you have the time, you could just rebuild from the ground up.  If
you keep your build tree around, this might not even take too long (I
typically delete my glib/gtk+ build trees, so for me it is still
somewhat painful).

You could easily set up a cron job to do this periodically.

Unfortunately, in some cases it will require manual intervention, at
least if you want to keep the build tree around.  If you don't mind
building from scratch every time, then it can be entirely automated.


Does this address your concerns?  I feel like I'm missing something,
but I don't understand what it is.

Tom