minimum library version requirements (was Re: Xfce 4.6 ALPHA ('Pinkie') Released!!!)

[Brian J. Tarricone]

On Sun, 14 Sep 2008 12:23:45 -0400 Jerry wrote:

> On Sun, 14 Sep 2008 18:01:59 +0200
> Yves-Alexis Perez <corsac at debian.org> wrote:
> 
> > People need *stable* interfaces, you know. It doesn't not mean they
> > are depreciated, at all. One year in the real world is *nothing*,
> > migrations times are a lot larger than that. People can't use
> > software if it's deprecated a year later.
> 
> I am not sure if I am properly comprehending the meaning of your last
> sentence. In any event, I believe it is obvious that we disagree on
> the fundamental development of new software. That does not mark
> either of us as right or wrong. We simply share different
> philosophies.

Fact: People use older distributions that don't have the latest
versions of all core libraries, and might want to try out a new version
of Xfce anyway.

Myth: Newer versions of core libraries are automatically "better".

As an aside: "depreciate" means "to decrease in value."  "Deprecate"
means "to make obsolete."  You don't "depreciate" old interfaces
(arguably, they do that on their own ^_~).  Please don't mix up the two.

I think you're confusing our minimum version requirement with some kind
of weird dependency on a particular version of *code*.  We depend on a
minimum glib/gtk INTERFACE VERSION.  This has absolutely nothing to do
with the code that implements that interface.  None of the interfaces
we rely on are deprecated -- or, to put it another way, none of the
interfaces we rely on are deprecated by an interface only present in a
version of glib/gtk+ newer than our minimum requirement.

Really, I fail to see what your issue is, here, aside from just
bitching over nothing and trying to make yourself appear "smart."  What
does it matter to you, as an end-user, what our minimum version
requirement is?  If you don't like compiling/running Xfce linked to
glib 2.12 and gtk+ 2.10, then compile/run it against 2.18/2.14.  It's
your choice.

	-brian