Re: glib-1.3

["Shawn T . Amundson" <amundson gimp org>]

All the arguments presented on both sides of this issue are
correct.  We basically have goals that are simply unresolvable.
But the goals of GLib are not the goals of GNOME, or even 
GTK+.  If they are, then the goals of GTK+ are the same as
GIMP.  (We used to sync GIMP and GTK+ releases, remember?)

Historically, the releases of GLib and GTK+ have been determined
by applications which need them.  Version 1.0 was for GIMP.  Version
1.2 was largely for GNOME and because people no longer used 1.0.  
Stable GIMP stayed at 1.0 for a long time, until 1.2 was released.  
GNOME can stay at 1.2 until 1.4.  But we can not keep GLib from moving 
forward when we have motivated people to further it's development.

I suggest all GNOME developers listen to Miguel and use GLib 1.2
until 1.4 comes out.  It could be we will release 1.4 specifically
so GNOME can rely on the newer version of GLib.  Until then, use
1.2.

None of this has anything to do with GTK+, and don't expect to see 
GTK+ 1.3 soon.  At least for now, we will not have synced versions
of the two libraries.  Once GTK+ is ready, we will determine whether
to sync them at that time.

It could be that some glib 1.3 features get into a new release of
GLib 1.2.  That can solve some concerns that Miguel has.  But we 
want to do that carefully, with a lot of testing, and probably over 
a period of time so it gets tested.  It's not something we can do 
this week and get a stable release out the next day.

A few more things about the early glib 1.3.x series:

 * Announcements will not be made in the 'normal' fashion, and no 
   information except perhaps warnings will be conveyed when announcements
   are sent.

 * No mention on the website of were to get glib 1.3.x, at least not
   yet.

Here is the URL, where you can find GLib 1.3.0:

ftp://ftp.gtk.org/pub/glib/unstable/v1.3/

Note 1.2 may have bug fixes this release doesn't have.  This release
isn't 'newer' than 1.2.

I'm including part of the README file below.  This is also the 
text that gets spit out at the end of configure now.  Binary package 
maintainers should take special note not to package glib-config and 
headers of GLib 1.3.  *please* 

A note for Josh: if you want a new version of GLib released, just
send me personal e-mail.  It may take a few days to coordinate with
everyone (once everyone is working on 1.3), but it can and will get 
done for you.

Think happy thoughts,

-Shawn


*** IMPORTANT *** 

This is a development version of GLib.  You should be using a stable
version, which is available at ftp://ftp.gtk.org/pub/gtk/v1.2/.  This
version is meant for developers of GLib only:

 * You should not base stable software on this version of GLib.
 * GNOME developers should use a stable version of GLib.

Distributions should *NOT* ship a development package of this GLib.
Do not ship the headers and do not ship the glib-config script.  These
things will conflict with the stable 1.2 series.  Package only enough
to satisfy the requirements of some other package.  Package only the
library itself.  Doing otherwise will do no favors to the community.

If you install this version of GLib, we strongly recommend that you
install it in a different prefix than GLib 1.2.  Use --prefix as an
argument to configure to do this.  Otherwise, you will not be able to
do development with GLib 1.2 any longer.

*** You should be using GLib 1.2 instead. ***

--
Shawn T. Amundson               
amundson@gimp.org               http://www.gimp.org/~amundson

"The assumption that the universe looks the same in every
 direction is clearly not true in reality." - Stephen Hawking