Hi everyone,

Even if we did not fully decide on the next version number and future
ABI/API backward compatibiltiy, I still think this patch is useful.

Therefore, I committed it as revision 1779.

Best regards,
 Dominik

On Wed, Aug 3, 2016 at 1:32 AM, Alexandre Demers <
alexandre.f.dem...@gmail.com> wrote:

> On Mon, 2016-08-01 at 03:23 -0400, Alexandre Demers wrote:
> >
> > Since I had no answer for now about my previous email, I'll assume the
> > major version number to be the API/ABI compatibility number. With that,
> > here is a patch to generate and install a pkg-config file for libpodofo.
> >
> > Please, note that the .pc file will only be created for system where
> > pkg-config is available. I could have restricted it only to the OS, but
> > than again pkg-config can be installed on mostly any OS. On the other
> > hand, .pc file could be created and installed in all cases, so if
> > wanted, this condition could be removed.
> >
>
>         Hi,
> I'm not a PoDoFo maintainer, but from my past experience, the API
> stability is currently identified by the MAJOR.MINOR.MICRO version,
> thus basically what it is right now.
>
> Regarding the patch:
> a) please send patches as attachments, different mail applications can
>     garble "patches" sent inline;
> b) I would create the .pc file always personally;
> c) does the patch expect any other changes being applied?
>         Bye,
>         zyx
>
>
> Hi zyx,
>
> Indeed, about the API backward compatibility, it seems as such. I've
> found this very useful site yesterday which lists API/ABI backward
> compatibility for many free libraries: http://upstream.rosalinux.ru/
>
> One can find the results for PoDoFo between 0.5.0 and 0.9.3:
> http://upstream.rosalinux.ru/versions/podofo.html
>
> - Not proposing a "stable" number in the versioning scheme should be
> avoided at all costs, otherwise programs need to be recompiled for every
> "patch" increment to insure that it is still working as expected.
> Example: at work, I'm on Archlinux, using Scribus-svn (thus compiled
> directly on my system) for the added functionalities provided by the
> latest dev version. When I needed Scribus, I had to recompile it for
> that small patch increment.
>
> Another example: Valve's Steam had many bugs reported on Linux when the
> libnm team broke their API compatibility without having such a
> versioning mechanism: Steam was relying on a given version, the number
> thought to be representing the API compatibility had not been updated,
> thus crashing Steam for many users that were using their native
> libraries once they had received the latest libnm library. It is a
> mechanism change that has to be implemented.
>
> - I would at least suggest to use the minor number as the stable API
> mecanism; patch number would then be used only for fixes. By going a bit
> further, adding new functions, symbols, etc. is not a problem as long as
> the available API/ABI is preserved. Thus, the minor number could be used
> for that purpose instead and the major number increment would represent
> something deeper (API/ABI incompatibility).
>
> - PoDoFo could also use an odd/even minor number to indicate if the API
> is stable or if this is a development version.
>
> - Functions could be flagged as deprecated (webpage, doc, changelog or
> even outputting a warning when used) if they were to be replaced/removed
> in the next stable version after new ones had be introduced.
>
> - Here are my toughts when reading about 0.5.0 being the latest
> "stable", and than about 0.9.0 being refactored and enhanced: one should
> ask himself why 0.5.0 was never promoted to an official 1.0.0 and 0.9.0
> to a 2.0.0. The API/ABI is incompatible, podofo-base and podofo-doc
> libraries were removed and merged in libpodofo and so on.
> Major increment = API/ABI [in]compatibility
> Minor increment = new features, API/ABI backward compatible
> Patch increment = fixes, nothing added nor removed
>
> Now, since we are at 0.9.4 and some patches have been merged since its
> release, maybe it is time to create a 1.0.0 version, to add some
> indications to the merge/development process for API/ABI backward
> compatibility, maybe even to name someone in charge of merging patches
> for a given branch once a release is out, etc. From there, 1.0.0 would
> be the new stable release and a branch would be created. Then, 1.0.X
> would be created along the way for fixes and trunk would be used to add
> new features until a given point where 1.Y.0 would be released and
> branched. Later, to initiate major changes, a new branch would be
> created (in-the-way-to-2.0.0) that would become 2.0.0 when ready, etc.
> At the rate where the releases are created, I think that would be the
> best way to go (two years between 0.9.3 and 0.9.4, a year between 0.9.2
> and 0.9.3, almost 2 years between 0.9.1 and 0.9.2). To ensure nothing is
> broken between Minor or Patch increments, we could run something like
> ABI compliance checker.
>
> a) I'm sorry about the patch attachment/inline, I'm used to the mesa,
> dri and kernel way of doing this: all emails are sent as plain text,
> encoded in UTF-8. Patches are also sent inlined as plain text. It is
> easier to read, reply and comment for anybody, easier to search for and
> by using plain text in UTF-8, there is no problem to merge them.
> PoDoFo's community could have a look at "git-send-email" on that matter.
> However, if PoDoFo prefers attachments, that's what I'll use next time.
>
> b) noted, comments are appreciated. I've been thinking about it for the
> last few days.
>
> c) no other change needed. The CMakeLists.txt changes take care of
> creating and installing the file; the .pc.in <http://pc.in> is used as
> an input file (template) to create a personalized .pc file according to
> the system or distribution at build time. It may need to be adjusted
> after statuating about the API/ABI backward compatibility scheme VS
> versioning though.
>
> Cheers,
> Alexandre Demers
>
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