[PyKDE] Project Management (was Error when loading libqtc for PyQt3.7)

[Jonathan Gardner]

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On Friday 11 July 2003 09:33, Frederick Polgardy Jr wrote:
> Obviously this situation arises, and will continue to arise, every
> iteration of SIP/PyQt development, given that PyKDE is a pretty
> monstrous project, and presumably Jim has a life outside of PyKDE. :)
> The problem is that there is a set of users who want the cutting edge
> SIP/PyQt stuff, and another set (in which I place myself) who want to
> continue to use the complete SIP/PyQt/PyKDE combo until *everything* is
> upgraded.
>
> In the Debian universe, what do you think of the idea of having some
> sort of metapackage for each set (or group of metapkgs, taking python
> versions, etc. into account)?  Or is it already too complicated? :)
> I'd guess once the build architecture is fairly well set up, it's not
> too hard to maintain, so I'm happy to help in any way I can.  It would
> be worth it to me to not have to deal with the inconsistencies and
> PyKDE "interruption of service" everytime SIP is upgraded.
>
> Any other thoughts on this?  I think it's a problem worth solving
> somehow.
>

My thought are:

The problem really is that right now, PyKDE development is having a hard time 
keeping up with PyQt/sip development. This is due partly because the 
maintainer PyKDE (Jim Bublitz) is busy, and partly because the maintainer of 
PyQt (Phil Thompson) is not.

I mean, everyone has this problem of maintaining two or three seperate 
versions of software as the software goes through major upgrades. That is 
unavoidable. The problems with sip, PyQt, and PyKDE is that we are going 
through major revisions quite often at this point, and unfortunately, Jim is 
not able to keep up with Phil's rapid pace, in addition to the short upgrade 
cycles.

The first solution in my mind is that we need to open up development of PyKDE 
so that it can keep up with PyQt. This is being done by Jim right now, so 
everything is good there.

The second solution would be to branch and maintain the earlier releases of 
PyQt and sip. People won't have to upgrade to a new version to get a minor 
bug fix they need, and so they won't be trapped waiting for PyKDE to come 
out. This requires more bodies and time, and both seem to be short in supply. 
It also helps to have fewer versions of sip and PyQt to maintain.

A third solution would be a sip 3.7.1 that works with PyQt 3.7.0, 3.7.1, and 
3.7.2, if you know what I mean. I think this would alleviate a lot of issues 
in all three packages. This is a lot of work to implement, even more work to 
maintain, and probably not a good idea at this point. However, maintaining 
backwards compatibility is a worthy goal of all software projects.

I will add that the barriers I see to people adopting sip, PyQt, and PyKDE are 
the problems of getting the right versions to play together, while also 
getting the latest bug fixes. It is outright frustrating at times. I myself 
stick with the 3.5 supplied with RedHat 8, just so that I can stabilize my 
development. I think all three suggestions above should help to lower this 
barrier.

These are just my opinions, based on what I have seen and heard. I hope they 
are challenged and corrected as appropriate.

- -- 
Jonathan Gardner <jgardner at jonathangardner.net>
(was jgardn at alumni.washington.edu)
Live Free, Use Linux!
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