Re: glib-1.3

[Josh MacDonald <jmacd CS Berkeley EDU>]

Quoting Miguel de Icaza (miguel@nuclecu.unam.mx):
> 
> > That means my development has to move at the speed of the rest of
> > yours, and that bothers me greatly because I think it is a far
> > greater threat to our overall productivity than whether GNOME has a
> > lot of users up until its next release (my attitude is: provide a
> > superior product and people will have no other choice but to switch,
> > but do not let the current interest level or an attempt to maintain
> > a user base on a less than superior version derail the
> > project--focus on the future not the past).
> 
> I see a fundamental flaw in your argument.
> 
> Various points:
> 
> 	1. I do not think I am forcing anyone to use the versions we
> 	   are developing against, nor are the GTK+ maintainers.

[Expect some sarcasm.]

Not explicitely.  I can't recommend anyone install glib-1.3 from
the discussion we've had.  I intend to use glib-1.2.  I am still
upset that GNOME and GTK development are effecitively restricting
GLIB development and its gets blamed on everyone else's problems:

* the users get confused
* the developers can't run stable software if they develop
* the package manager screwed things up
* libtool is broken
* the printer is out of toner, etc.

Meanwhile I have to go out of my way every few months to try and get
some work done with the development version of glib, which I then can't
expect anyone to install because it will conflict with their GNOME
installation, and therefore I have no users.  That's why we have a 
conflict of interest.  So no one uses Xdelta because the users got
confused and because the developers can't run stable versions and
so on, but I can't really fix those problems, I can only work around
them.  Furthermore, this really wouldn't have happened if I were somehow
more involved in this decision making progress, but since glib is 
subordinate to GTK and GNOME, and since that is the only code I share 
with the rest of you, I really have almost no influece over its maintenence
even though I'm a principle contributor.  This is not the first time.

That's why I'm upset.

I was also not really aware of all the policies of usage that everyone else 
somehow established.  That's a communication problem.  I wouldn't have used 
1.3 if I had known (I would have raised the same exact complaint though--
"you're slowing down glib development").

Now I intend to cooperate, I'm not trying to be difficult.  The problem
won't go away by itself.

-josh