Re: Upload of GNOME 2.6 to unstable
Ar 17/04/2004 am 11:57, ysgrifennodd Steve Langasek:
> I would also like to see some analysis of how GNOME 2.6 in unstable will
> affect other non-GNOME packages. For instance, if GNOME 2.6 requires a
> new version of GTK+ as well, will this require a transition for other
> GTK+-using packages? If GTK+ 2.4 has the same soname as GTK+ 2.2 (the
> package name in unstable suggests this is so), can GTK+ 2.4 safely be
> allowed into testing, or will other GTK+-using packages have to wait for
> all of GNOME 2.6 to be ready before they can be updated in testing?
> (Note that if the answer is that it can't be safely allowed into testing
> in advance of GNOME 2.6, the package name in experimental is almost
> certainly wrong.)
In terms of applications, GTK+ 2.4 should be 100% backwards-compatible
with GTK+ 2.2 and, for that matter, GTK+ 2.0. GNOME has promised that
APIs and ABIs will not change during major verions (the major version in
question being 2). If there is incompatibility, it is a bug.
Input methods and GTK+ themes seem to behave slightly differently. API
changes for minor versions for these seem to be permissible, I assume
because these APIs are more specialised. I don't know how much of a
problem this is.
For example, the uim-gtk2.0 package would, at the very least, have to
install to /usr/lib/gtk-2.0/2.4.0 rather than /usr/lib/gtk-2.0/2.2.0.
Some themes have been adapted to work with GTK+ 2.4 already. I don't
know how much work this was, whether the changes were compatible with
GTK+ 2.2, or how many themes are affected.
Hopefully, others can provide details here.
--
Dafydd
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