On 30/11/24 21:21, Albert Astals Cid wrote:
Additionally, several recent attempts to update our Windows Qt 5.15 images,
based on MSVC 2019, have all failed due to various different changes (with
the build of MPFR breaking for reasons unknown - likely MSys2 updates - and
QXMPP failing to build yet again....) which is not a tenable position for a
"CI supported" platform.
That removal is proposed to be essentially immediately (ie. now).
Subsequent to that I would also like to forbid any further feature releases
to be made of Qt 5 software following the end of this calendar year, to
clearly signal to the involved developers that they need to work on getting
a Qt 6 release out. Patch releases to resolve bugs and security issues
could continue to be made for a period of 6 more months at most.
This is not acceptable.
Qt 5.0 was released in December 2012
We introduced KDE Frameworks 5 in July 2014
https://kde.org/announcements/frameworks/5/5.0.0/
We stopped accepting kdelibs4 based apps in the "was-KDE-Gears-back-then" in
December 2017
https://community.kde.org/Schedules/Applications/17.12_Release_Schedule
Qt 6.0 was released in December 2020
We introduced KDE Frameworks 6 in February 2024
If we do the diff against our KF6 release we should accept KF5 apps in KDE
Gear at least until 2027, if you count since Qt relase we need to accept them
until end of 2025.
Giving 1 month of heads up is not ok.
Look I'm usually the one pushing to move onto new things but I agree
this is a bit short notice.
KDE Frameworks 6 was release on February 28 of this year, so closing it
off as of the end of the year isn't even a full 12 months.
I'm all for retiring old unmaintained projects but the big projects
probably need 1-2 years from (Feb 28) to get a new release out I think.
A list of projects still using Qt5 and their status would go a long way
to helping potential developers realise that app xyz isn't ported or has
an in progress port that might need help.
Cheers,
Albert
Any application that does not have a port underway as at the point where
feature releases become forbidden is proposed to be archived as
unmaintained at that time, with the same fate befalling applications that
have an unreleased port branch on 1 July 2025.
Should at any point post-31 December 2024 there become issues that make Qt
5 CI unsustainable for the remaining platforms (Linux and FreeBSD) then we
would discontinue CI for them at that time as well with minimal notice
being given in advance.
Note that while this may seem a little "over the top" it is necessary to
reduce the maintenance burden and cost of keeping Qt 5 alive (for an ever
decreasing number of applications) on the maintainers of central
infrastructure (such as myself).
Regards,
Ben
