Depending on external libraries

[Kendall Bennett]

Keith Packard <keithp@keithp.com> wrote:

> > But for some poor schmo who loves X and just wants to get his feet wet
> > building the latest code from X.org or whatever, it can be a really serious
> > problem if the code won't build or even work if that developer has outdated
> > libraries.
> 
> The correct solution here is a meta build-tool like jhbuild which
> ensures that the correct dependent versions of each service is
> built by fetching bits directly from upstream during the build
> process. 

Assuming that you have somewhere to get an 'upstream' version from that 
will be correct and work for what you need. What if getting the fixes 
into the upstream project in a timely fashion is problematic, or if the 
upstream project doesn't like the way you did something and rejects your 
changes, but you have to continue with the current release plans?

> If you accept that we plan to move to the modular environment for
> the majority of development, then starting now by eliminating
> pieces which can easily be built independently will only help make
> that migration easier and less painful. 

Oh, I am all for the modular build process, but I am just worried that if 
you make things too fine graind and modular in terms of relying on tons 
of external libraries just to get a basic build done, that you will 
potentially have release timing issues with upstream projects that can't 
be solved in time for an official release.

Maybe I am biased, but in my experience building a product based on the 
wxWindows toolkit (now wxWidgets), we had no option *but* to fork the 
toolkit and maintain our own separate version. We had major issues with 
getting new additions to th wxWindows that we needed added to the 
upstream versions, and every time we pulled down the latest upstream code 
it took literally two weeks to get it working properly. Granted that 
project needs a serious lesson in release engineering skills, but I would 
hate to have to hold up a release of a new X.org server due to political 
issues with an upstream project.

Regards,

---
Kendall Bennett
Chief Executive Officer
SciTech Software, Inc.
Phone: (530) 894 8400
http://www.scitechsoft.com

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