how to use 4.0.6 & 4.2.0 simultaneously

[purslow at sympatico.ca]

041005 Brian J. Tarricone wrote:
> now that we have a session manager,
> i think the separate xinitrc can essentially go away.
> the customisation type stuff that xinitrc does
> (e.g., merging Xft settings using xrdb) might be better done
> in the session manager itself (or possibly MCS).
> i wouldn't expect this to happen until 4.4
> (where we'll have a new settings manager anyway),
> since we still have some legacy stuff that gets done in our xinitrc.

yes, that looks like an interesting idea to follow up:
 xinitrc  does look like a legacy item which needs replacing
by something more carefully designed for 4.2 & 4.4 (when that happens).

my problem for the past  2 days  was due to the naivety of the scripts,
which don't allow for different versions of Xfce binaries w different paths.
that's easy to fix by hand, as i have described in another thread,
but it sb done somewhere in the installation/packaging, if only by a README.
after all, there's no README of any kind in the basic Xfce 4.2 bz2 spread,
not even to tell a user in what order to compile the many pieces.

yes, i know: "If you want it, write it yourself".  mb i'll have a go,
but 1st -- tonight -- i plan to try out 4.2 & see how far it takes me
while doing my other normal daily activities.

the version problem hasn't arisen before, as there never were  2  versions.
Xfce4 was really a totally new product, unlikely to collide w 3.18.8 ,
while the various versions 4.0.x have been incremental bugfixes etc.
however, when there's a jump 4.0 -> 4.2 or later 4.2 -> 4.4 ,
users are going to want to keep the earlier around while they try the later
& after all the developers do need feedback from real users.

yes, it's packaging, not programming, but that doesn't make it unimportant.
so this is a problem which does need addressing, tho' not today.

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