Ralf Nolden <nolden@kde.org> writes: [...] > Compatibility file - should only be included by legacy code. > It #includes the file which obsoletes this one. > > The only code there is just #include "qapplication.h". > > The result is that as long as you are providing this file in a headers > package, developers are offered the possibility to use it as an include in > their code, even if the application works with Qt 3. The files however, are > target to removal any time in the future by Qt upstream packages. In this > case, the affected upstream program/package will be affected as soon as a new > Qt release will drop those compatibility include set. No it won't, because the Qt4 packages won't supersede the Qt3 packages. We'll likely keep Qt3 around a long while after Qt4 has been released, just like we have for Qt2. > Which essentially means that if by upload of the Qt package maintainer > the built of these packages will fail for the affected package > maintainer where we allowed upstream to use stuff that it shouldn't. Debian generally supplies separate Qt packages for each major Qt release (i.e. Qt2/Qt3), and Trolltech generally maintains API compatibility within each release. So, Debian should never run into the problem of a minor Qt release that breaks existing software that builds with that major release. In other words, every package in Debian that currently builds with Qt3 will always build with Qt3. The problem you describe only comes up when Debian finally removes Qt3; by that time, any software that hasn't already been ported to Qt4 has likely been dead upstream for quite a while, so it can just be removed as well. > Let me point out another scenario that is responsible for quite some mess with > upstream packages that developers created and where packagers are responsible > for: The style plugins. [...] Plugins are a different beast though, since anything that uses those headers is broken *now*, not in a few years. -- My secret to happiness... is that I have a heart of a 12-year-old boy. It's over here in a jar. Would you like to see it?
Attachment:
pgplR1WM_NAlf.pgp
Description: PGP signature