a request for the next 1.8.* version

[Thomas Bushnell BSG]

Neil Williams <linux at codehelp.co.uk> writes:

> On Wednesday 16 February 2005 8:43 pm, Thomas Bushnell BSG wrote:
> > There are a number of build problems, particulary on mips, but some
> > other archs too, which are the end result of gnucash using quite
> > outdated auto* tools.
> >
> > Would it be possible for the next 1.8.* release . . .
> 
> There might not be another release from the 1.8 tree - it's hoped that the 
> long awaited Gnome2 port will be the next release and this will remove the 
> dependencies on Gnome1.4 tools.

It's not about "gnome1.4 tools".  It's about old *build* tools, that
is, autoconf, libtool, and automake.

> http://gnomesupport.org/wiki/index.php/GnuCashPortingStatus

What kind of time frame are you actually talking about?

This link is not comforting, for it reports that the gnome2 port is
"nowhere near being usable accounting software".  This is what I
already report to Debian users who ask about it too.  I say that
upstream is working on the gnome2 version, which is unfortunately
nowhere near ready.

We just had two releases of 1.8 in a row to fix bugs; gnucash *cannot*
build on mips due purely to the way-way-way out-of-date build tools,
and using even newer versions of the old versions of the build tools
invariably breaks the build system and causes pain.

Someone has to do the work; does the gnome-2 branch use new auto*
tools?  That is, *not* autoconf-1.4? and *not* libtool-1.4?

If a Debian developer were to revamp the build system for 1.8 so that
it works on modern systems, would there be any chance of having it
folded into a release of the 1.8 branch?

Thomas