[Please use debian-input-method@lists.debian.org as main discussion list] Dear all, TL;DR: Let's drop package ibus-pinyin from Debian since it implicitly (build- )depends on the unmaintained python2. If we want to save it, considerable amount of work need to be done. Details on the proposed removal of ibus-pinyin are as follows: The default pinyin input method for ibus used to be ibus-pinyin[1] and its upstream is https://github.com/ibus/ibus-pinyin/ . However, in recent years the development shifts towards the libpinyin project, which provides ibus- libpinyin[2] at https://github.com/libpinyin/ibus-libpinyin . The old ibus- pinyin package was deprecated but not removed since someone may still prefer to use it. However, ibus-pinyin depends on libpyzy[3], a conversion library between pinyin and bopomofo (a.k.a. zhuyin). This library has a dead upstream at https://github.com/hsumita/libpyzy , which was exported from googlecode and has no activity in the last 10 years. This library heavily depends on some python2 scripts. Now that the ongoing Python2 removal transition[4] is likely to complete within the Bullseye cycle (you may find a progress chart here[5]), it's likely that the libpyzy library will need to be ported to Python3 or dropped together with ibus-pinyin, perhaps later this year. I'm wondering if anyone is interested in porting python2 scripts in libpyzy project. I had a really quick glance and have an estimation that it will probably requires 5 hours of porting and another 15 hours of testing to ensure a proper python3 migration if the developer has good experience in Python2->3 porting. Of course, another option is that we completely throw this library as well as ibus-pinyin away. P.S. I discussed it with the Arch Linux maintainer of ibus-pinyin/pyzy back in 2016 and 2018; the conclusion was to keep it at that time. Things have changed since then. Let me know if you have any thoughts. Volunteering would be highly welcome. -- Regards, Boyuan Yang [1] https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/ibus-pinyin [2] https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/ibus-libpinyin [3] https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/libpyzy [4] https://release.debian.org/transitions/html/python2-rm.html [5] http://sandrotosi.me/debian/py2removal/py2removal_progress.png
Attachment:
signature.asc
Description: This is a digitally signed message part