GTK+ target version [WAS Re: new dev branch stuff]

[Benedikt Meurer]

Olivier,

> I think targeting GTK+-2.6 is a bad idea.
> 
> Not because I don't like GTK+-2.6, not even because I don't like the
> features added in 2.6, but simply because of the target audience of
> Xfce.
> 
> I don't want Xfce to be yet another geek toy, requiring all the brand
> new stuff. I think Xfce should be aimed at the most general use, and in
> a corporate environment you very rarely see the latest versions of libs
> or software (think RHEL for example)
> 
> In many places, you'll still find RH 7.2/RHEL 2.1 and gtk+-2.6 doesn't
> work there. Every app that use a text widget (inclufing text input
> field) in 2.6 dies with a "Bad implementation" error.
> 
> An bug in GTK-+2.6? maybe, maybe not. It may simply be that GTK+-2.6 is
> not designed for such old systems anymore. So if we depend on 2.6, we
> shall limit ourselves to the same targets as GTK+-2.6.
> 
> Let's keep in mind that there is no "Xfce centric major distribution".
> RH/Fedora use and promote GNOME, SuSE and Mdk are KDE. It doesn't matter
> for GNOME or KDE to require the latest GTK+ or Qt version because there
> is always a major distribution that will match their requirements,
> whatever it could be. 
> 
> We are not there yet with Xfce IMO.
> 
> Hope you get my point.

I see your point, and fully comply with it, given the fact that we 
really release in August. But, remember, with 4.2.0, we wanted to 
release in September/October, and in the end it was January. So, 
question about the GTK+ target version is rather useless, until we 
decide when we want to definately release 4.4.0 (yeah, that includes not 
breaking the feature freeze, and such). If we cannot agree on a approx. 
date for the release, then we won't release before 2006 either, and so 
2.6 is a good target.

*But* if we agree on an earlier date and agree that Xfce should be ready 
by that time (e.g. late feature additions go to HEAD then, not to the 
release branch), we should definetly target 2.4 for the reasons you 
mentioned already (and some other reasons, that aren't that important).

> Cheers,
> Olivier.

regards,
Benedikt