Bug#787953: depends on obsolete libasm2-java library
Markus Koschany <apo@gambaru.de> writes:
> Hi!
hello Markus,
> Am 09.10.2015 um 21:01 schrieb Felix Natter:
>> Markus Koschany <apo@gambaru.de> writes:
> [...]
>>> Unfortunately insubstantial is also unmaintained now and still depends
>>> on asm2.
>>>
>>> I think it only makes sense to replace substance and its libraries with
>>> insubstantial when upstream development continues and asm2 is replaced
>>> with a newer, Java 7+ compatible version.
>>
>> Are you sure? I was able to build insubstantial (7.3) with asm2 and used
>> the resulting package in the r-deps jajuk/bgfinancas/triplea[2]/freeplane)
>> where it worked fine.
>
> My concerns are not about building insubstantial with asm2. That works.
> I query whether it makes sense to switch from one unmaintained project
> (substance, liblaf-widget-java, trident, etc) to another one
> (insubstantial).
>
> http://speling.shemnon.com/blog/2013/06/08/insubstantial-needs-a-new-maintainer/
I think it does, see below.
> If you really intend to maintain insubstantial you should be prepared to
> do development work as bug fixing or switching from asm2 to asm5 too.
> Otherwise we and you invest a lot of time for a switch but without a
> significant gain.
The significant gain is that we don't have to rewrite large parts of
freeplane 1.4 and triplea 1.8.
>> [2] triplea 1.8 will require insubstantial (7.3):
>> http://sourceforge.net/p/triplea/code/HEAD/tree/trunk/triplea/changelog.txt
>
> The Debian package of triplea currently recommends substance and I think
> this will remain when 1.8 is packaged. Making a LAF-theme optional is
> one of the solutions I can think of.
It's certainly easier to use insubstantial than to patch freeplane-1.4
and triplea-1.8.
>> A quick search in the history (http://asm.ow2.org/history.html) did not
>> reveal anything. They claim that ASM4 will "full[y] support of Java 7"
>> and ASM5 will "Full[y] support of Java 8" but does that really mean that
>> it does not work with java7/java8?
>>
>> But reading #801322/#801323, I guess you argue that libasm2 must be
>> removed from the archive.
>
> Careful. asm2 was released ten years ago and is currently packaged in
> libasm2-java. The latest version of asm is packaged in libasm4-java
> (actually asm5). I have only filed those bug reports because I would
> like to see modern packages use the latest version of asm and not
> something from the last decade. So libasm4-java is fully supported
> upstream. I just care and want to clean up a little and to remove (very)
> old packages. Maintaining several versions of the same library in Debian
> should be the exception, even for Java.
>
>>> I am going to file bug reports against Jajuk and bgfinancas which depend
>>> on substance and ask that they either move away from substance or take
>>> over maintenance.
>>
>> Moving away from flamingo/substance/trident is _a lot_ of work. For
>> freeplane this would mean rewriting the user interface (ribbons).
>> The jajuk maintainers tell similar things [3]
>> (though it's easier for jajuk because they "only" use substance L&Fs)
>>
>> [3] https://github.com/jajuk-team/jajuk/issues/1994
>
> I have to further discuss this with the upstream developer of Jajuk but
> he indicated that he could be willing to switch to Nimbus as the default
> theme. He might also be interested in helping you to port insubstantial
> to asm5 (libasm4-java). I will ask him.
+1 for porting, thanks!
Please also tell him/her that I have patches for converting jajuk to
insubstantial 7.3:
https://github.com/fnatter/insubstantial-debian/blob/rdeps/rdeps/jajuk/05_insubstantial_7.3.diff
https://github.com/fnatter/insubstantial-debian/blob/rdeps/rdeps/jajuk/MANIFEST.MF.diff
>>> I have opened an upstream bug report for Jajuk already:
>>>
>>> https://github.com/jajuk-team/jajuk/issues/1994
>>
>> How about trying to add a Debian patch to make insubstantial (7.3) build
>> with asm4 (if that is necessary)? Shall I look into it?
>
> That would be definitely one of the preferred options to solve this issue.
>
> I see the following option:
>
> 1. Go ahead and package insubstantial as one source package that
> provides the old binary packages from substance, trident,
> liblaf-widget-java, etc. Maven poms should be provided as well. If you
> also provide a patch to build with libasm4-java we could easily replace
> the old dependencies for jajuk, bgfinancas, triplea and freeplane with
> your new version and remove libasm2-java from Debian. (only
> jasperreports would be an open issue but I would invest the time to fix
> this package myself)
Agreed, I will work on providing poms. Two questions:
- can you think of a role model package for installing maven artifacts?
- Do I have to generate poms via gradle or shall/can I use+modify the
ones from maven.org?
(http://search.maven.org/#artifactdetails|com.github.insubstantial|flamingo|7.3|jar)
> Win-Win situation
>
> 2. Make substance an optional theme and use Nimbus or other standard themes.
It's not just the themes/L&Fs. flamingo/substance/trident is used to
build a ribbon ui in freeplane.
> 3. Do not depend on unmaintained software like substance at all. ;-)
It's too late for that now ;-)
Cheers and Best Regards,
--
Felix Natter
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