Nathanael Nerode <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > imlib+png2 (Maintainer: Steve M. Robbins) > -- this urgently needs to be transitioned to use libpng12 (despite its name). > > If that's impossible, then you need to pick up libpng10 (a.k.a. png2) as > well. Either way, its uninstallability is the thing which is making the big > mess.
The reason for imlib+png2 is to accomodate the use of png2 in gnome-1 programs, since the old and new png libraries cannot coexist in one binary. So the gnome-1 libraries are linked against imlib+png2 instead of imlib, to get the old png2. The problem happens because libgnome-dev requires gdk-imlib1-dev, and promises gnome-1 programs that png2 will be used and not the new png. I don't know about the changes in the new png. Are they source compatible? If not, then the new png *does not replace* the old one. Now it would be nice to compile libgnome-dev against a new-png version of gdk-imlib. But y'all haven't seen fit to make one! The imlib+png2 source package provides -lgdk_imlib, but the imlib source package does not. Of course, this would not have happened if the remove-happy strategy of the gnome team were not in effect. What should have happened was that libpng10 was in use, and Josselin Mouette didn't want to maintain it any more, so he should have *orphaned* it. Don't just delete libraries without checking with the packages that use them first. In this case, we were hosed because of this strategy. Now, if the imlib package were to acquire a gdx-imlib library, then that would be special and maybe gnome-libs could link against it and we'd all be happy. I'm happy to do the leg-work to make things happen, but: 1) gnome-libs is not orphaned, so I can't do uploads of it; 2) the imlib source package does not build -lgdk_imlib; 3) I can't fix imlib even if it needed to be, because it has a maintainer; 4) libpng10 was deleted without notifying all the users of it, but rather, only one direct user (imlib+png2), leaving the indirect users no way to tell what was going on until it was too late. So I'll be glad to help work on this, but golly gee, PLEASE hear the plea not to start deleting more libraries! Thomas -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
