opencpn: Unbundling wxcurl or not: re-evaluation of the situation.

[Alec Leamas <leamas.alec@gmail.com>]

Dear list,


I have made a more detailed look into the wxcurl code in opencpn and a
tentative wxcurl package (draft in salsa). Facts in short:

  - Upstream is abandoned since 2010.
  - Upstream uses the bakefiles system to generate Makefile.in +
configure. bakefiles is not available in debian  (I have used fedora to
update Makefile.in + configure).
  - OpenCPN has made a large number of non-controversial patches:
bugfixes, expanded API etc.
  - OpenCPN has also made a major API change to fix a problem in the
Windows build.
  - An OpenCPN package will need a wxcurl package with the same API
change or carry patches for an unrevised API. The latter is feasible,
but hard to upstream and perhaps a pain to maintain.

Bottom line: I'm not that convinced that unbundling wxcurl is the proper
way to go any more, mostly due to the combination of an abandoned
upstream and a revised API.

The alternative would be to use the wxcurl code bundled in OpenCPN.

Thoughts?

Cheers!
--alec
  .