Re: Unicode 7.0 released - some packages contain outdated embedded data copies
Paul Wise <pabs@debian.org> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> Unicode 7.0 was recently released. I discovered some source packages
> contain outdated copies of various Unicode data files. At minimum, the
> following packages embed part of the Unicode data (UnicodeData.txt).
>
> . . .
>
> Please ask your upstreams to remove the Unicode data files from their
> version control systems and source tarballs and instead check for and
> use external Unicode data files at build-time or run-time. Then your
> packages can Build-Depend or Depend on the unicode-data binary package.
I'd have to study it a little more, but I'm not sure this actually makes
sense for a package like ICU whose sole purpose in life is handling
Unicode. That said, it's probably a good idea to make sure we get an ICU
with Unicode >= 7.0 in it before Jessie. Since new ICU versions always
require soname bumps and transitions, I generally try to keep it to no
more than once or twice per release cycle.
Unfortunately though, with one exception, ICU 53 uses Unicode 6.3, and
it doesn't look like ICU 54 will make it out in time for the Jesse
freeze, so this probably means we'll be stuck with Unicode 6.3 in ICU
(and ICU4J) for Jessie, but I'd welcome other suggestions.
If someone thinks I'm off base in suggesting that ICU and ICU4J might be
in a different place from other packages that use Unicode data in some
incidental way, feel free to set me straight.
--
Jay Berkenbilt <qjb@debian.org>
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