Debian FYI

[Josh Sled]

On Tue, 2005-09-27 at 21:09 -0700, Thomas Bushnell BSG wrote:
> The consequence would be that gnucash would have to get dropped from
> Debian until the gnome-2 branch can be built for Debian.

This is not unreasonable nor unexpected.

> There are some things that I have been asked; they are mean questions,
> and I don't repeat them because I imply they are fair, but only
> because if there are good answers to give, it would help me fight the
> fight.
> 
> 1. People want to know why gnucash is still transitioning, three years
> after gnome 2 started out.  That's the big one.

It's a big app with some custom widgetry, a dead graphing library to be
replaced by an only-recently-factored out graphing library (with
dependencies not aligned with ours.)  More importantly, though: few
developers with limited time and a sprawling codebase limiting
new-developer adoption.


> 2. People are worried that lots of unrelated development is being done in
> the gnome-2 branch; that is, that it is delayed not because of the
> work of adapting to the new gnome libraries, but because a whole bunch
> of other stuff was attempted at the same time.

There has been some.  I don't believe it has gotten in the way of or
delayed the g2 port, though it might delay the release end-game.
Certinaly it would be nicer if all available resources were brought to
bear on the G2 port.

I believe, and I think there's concensus around, excising things like
the unfinished budgeting work if it's going to block a release.  I'm not
sure of any new work that we'd have to commit to finishing at this
point.


> 3. People want assurance that gnome-1 won't need to be maintained forever
> in Debian.  They would feel a lot better if there could be some
> plausible statement like "transition is expected to finish by
> such-and-such a date".  I know such things are impossible, but if
> there is *something* that can be said, it would ease a lot of people.

That statement is presently not plausible.

GNOME2_STATUS *is* reducing over time.

I'm thinking a 6-month timeframe, but I've said that before.  It's a
more reasonable thing to say now, however.

...jsled

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