Re: Helix GNOME: libxml2?

[Toralf Lund <toralf kscanners com>]

Ian Peters wrote:

> On Tue, Nov 28, 2000 at 10:23:11AM +0100, Toralf Lund wrote:
> > > On 27 Nov 2000 19:46:32 +0100, Toralf Lund wrote:
> > > > Why is there no RPM for libxml2 in the Helix GNOME distribution?
> > >
> > > Because nothing in GNOME needs it.
> > > iain
> >
> > Doesn't Helix aim to support those of us who are developing Gtk/GNOME
> > applications?
>
> libxml2 is not part of the GNOME 1.x platform:
> http://developer.gnome.org/status/roadmap.html
>
> We're simply following the advice given there, which reads, in part,
>
>   "We recommend that application developers do not use libraries until
>   they are released as part of a platform, and we recommend that
>   distributions do not ship libraries (or apps that link to them)
>   until said libraries are part of a development platform."
>
> If you have a serious need to begin developing against libxml2, I'm
> sure you know how to download and compile it into a different prefix,
> and compile and link against it.

One of the reasons for wanting libxml2 is

     If you are starting a new project using libxml you should really
     use the 2.x version.

- from http://xmlsoft.org/

Another is that the 1.8.10 doesn't work without manual updates to the .h
files, at least not if you are using C++;

     # gendiff /usr/include/gnome-xml .orig
     --- /usr/include/gnome-xml/SAX.h.orig Thu Sep 14 21:22:30 2000
     +++ /usr/include/gnome-xml/SAX.h Tue Nov 28 13:38:45 2000
     @@ -16,7 +16,7 @@
      #include "xlink.h"

      #ifdef __cplusplus
     -#define extern "C" {
     +extern "C" {
      #endif
      const xmlChar * getPublicId   (void *ctx);
      const xmlChar * getSystemId   (void *ctx);
     --- /usr/include/gnome-xml/xlink.h.orig Thu Sep 14 21:22:30 2000

     +++ /usr/include/gnome-xml/xlink.h Tue Nov 28 13:38:48 2000
     @@ -16,7 +16,7 @@
      #include "tree.h"

      #ifdef __cplusplus
     -#define extern "C" {
     +extern "C" {
      #endif
      /**
       * Various defines for the various Link properties.

- Toralf