[Geany-Devel] On Deprecation of Platforms

[Nick Treleaven]

On 03/10/2013 15:37, Lex Trotman wrote:
>>> > >- holding us at an unreasonably old GTK version
>> >
>> >Sorry?  I don't think Windows support has anything to do with the GTK
>> >version we support.  If anything, it's rather the contrary, providing a
>> >newer version for Windows installers is far easier than forcing users of
>> >old GNU/Linux distros to build a new version.
>> >
> Well, as I understand it, moving the windows packages to GTK 2.24 is the
> only thing holding us at 2.16.  As there was a deathly hush on the ML
> thread when volunteers were requested to try it, I guess nobody is willing
> to support it, even just for that.

I'm not sure that was the main reason, I argued that LTS distros was a 
reason for keeping older dependencies. I expect there are newer 
runtimes, I heard gtk 3 on Windows works reasonably well since last year 
or so.

In any case, if we want to up the dependencies, don't deliberately drop 
Windows support.

>>> > >- hard to maintain due to being hacks on top of hacks
>> >
>> >Again, spawning code (only?)
>> >
> Again 10% of open bugs.

Just because there are unresolved bugs doesn't mean we should drop a 
platform.

User: 'Your software doesn't work right'
Dev: 'Forget it, we're going to stop releases for your platform'

>>> > >- few of the developers have access to a representative development
>>> > >setup (no WinXP on a VM is hardly representative)
>> >
>> >I indeed don't, but AFAIK Nick and Matthew does
>> >
> And I should add, its not reasonable if you are the only one either, the
> fixes needed to windows will deprive the rest of Geany of any of your
> effort.  Its not as if there are no other things to do:)

A slightly broken Windows version is infinitely better than none at all. 
I use it and don't experience any significant issues that can't be 
worked around.

>> >Anyway, although I agree the Windows version isn't as good as it should
>> >right now, I don't really see the problem it causes to the rest of
>> >Geany.  And if we indeed clean some things up a little like Matthew
>> >suggests, it could even be just fine (Windows dialogs, come on).

I don't mind if Matt wants to remove the Windows dialogs. Enrico put 
them in, I think they're not really necessary.

> Again, the issue is, without anybody to do it, all that happens is that the
> rest of Geany gets less love.
>
> Lots of people over the years have put forward suggestions, but none of
> them have even dropped a PR or patch, let alone assisted with maintenance.
>   Its not nice to cut off a platform, but if everybody expects others to do
> the work, then we may have no choice or the whole project will collapse.

^^^ *Massive* exaggeration. Most open source projects have unresolved 
bugs. Unfunded open source projects work mostly because developers fix 
problems that they themselves experience. I don't see any significant 
problems with the Windows version that affect me.

> I'm not saying delete anything inside #ifdef OS_WIN32 tomorrow.  But also
> in fairness some warning that platform specific code is not being
> maintained adequately needs to be given to Windows users, and their help
> sought, and this is one way I can think of that makes it clear.  Other
> suggestions are welcome:)

You are massively overreacting. If we really cared so much about user 
experience we would make more bugfix releases, but we don't have the 
resources for that.