Re: PNG -- can't we all just get along?
On Tue, May 27, 2003 at 11:17:51PM -0700, Ross Boylan wrote:
> I have a mostly testing system. When I try to get the latest
> development stuff for libpng, this happens:
> # apt-get -du install libpng12-dev
> Reading Package Lists... Done
> Building Dependency Tree... Done
> The following packages will be REMOVED:
> imlib-dev kde-designer kdebase-dev kdelibs-dev libkmid-dev libkonq-dev libpng2-dev libqt-dev
> The following NEW packages will be installed:
> libpng12-dev
> 0 packages upgraded, 1 newly installed, 8 to remove and 138 not upgraded.
> libpng10-dev is installed on my system.
> I thought from the Debian README that the two versions of png could
> coexist, but it doesn't seem to work. libpng10-dev and libpng12-dev
> apparently can coexist, but libpng2-dev and dependents are getting the
> boot.
> Is there anything I can about this? If not, it seems I have to choose
> between being able to develop for gnome 1 vs kde (via qt), and can't
> do both at the same time.
I am certainly concerned and interested in seeing a solution to this.
The interactions between various versions of libPNG have long been a bit
tough for package maintainers to figure out; I don't have long knowledge
of the GNU/Linux PNG packaging but I know that the Cygwin PNG package
maintainer once remarked that libPNG takes more of his time than all the
other packages he maintains for Cygwin, put together.
There is a background problem in that certain programming practices
widely engaged in by Linux programmers cause breakage in systems using
multiple versions of libPNG, and these breakages get blamed on upstream
(either the platform package maintainer or further upstream, the libPNG
folks). The libPNG folks will rigorously maintain that (and Roelofs can
explain in rigorous detail why) it's the fault of Qt and GNOME
programmers for example, not theirs.
The above cited merely to indicate that the problem doesn't surprise me
to hear of (I think I tripped over it myself and then abandoned whatever
it was that I was trying to do), and may not have its origin in a smal
simple error in package control-file configuration by the Debian libPNG
package maintainer. But I think s/he should certainly be contacted for
an explanation, if this truly isn't explained in the package docus.
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