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2014-10-12.log

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<zacts>hello
<rlb>Is there a guile 1.8 -> 2.0 conversion guide anywhere?
<civodul>rlb: not really, but almost everything should be in NEWS under "Changes in 2.0.0"
<rlb>So I'm addressing the guile-1.8 removal question now, and wanted to make sure I include any relevant information from people here -- what was the opinion with respect to g-wrap/guile-cairo/guile-gnome-platform again? i.e. was the opinion that they should be removed from debian, removed from jessie, or ...?
<mark_weaver>daviid's position was that g-wrap/guile-cairo/guile-gnome-platform should be removed from jessie if not updated to use guile 2.0.
<mark_weaver>all of those packages support guile 2 now, which makes it a shame though :-(
<mark_weaver>guile-cairo in particular is very easy to build on guile 2
<rlb>and how should I represent that to the release managers -- i.e. is daviid the upstream now?
<mark_weaver>no, he isn't.
<mark_weaver>I haven't had a chance to think about it.
<mark_weaver>rlb: did you see wingo ask you whether he should cut a new guile-cairo release?
<mark_weaver>that one is so easy, and quite useful for producing graphics, that it would be a shame not to include it.
<mark_weaver>but I guess we should have moved on all of this much earlier, so I'm not blaming anyone.
*rlb neither
<mark_weaver>the real problem here is that rotty_ seems to have lost interest in guile lately, and is not maintaining his debian guile packages.
<tadni`>I mean, besides maybe guile-cario, are any of these bindings really being used at all? :^P
<tadni`>They're still on the 2.x branch of GNOME, that alone, I think most limit it's use.
<rlb>wrt wingo, right -- I suppose the question is "who's going to maintain it"? i.e. it's a reasonable argument that we should be inclined against having packages in debian that don't have an active maintainer for X years.
<mark_weaver>tadni`: if they're not being used much, it's probably because they are not widely packaged. they are very useful.
<rlb>last non-NMU for guile-cairo was 2011-06
<rlb>and before that 2007-03
*rlb is not throwing stones (glass houses and all), but it's a question that's likely to be asked.
<mark_weaver>understood
<mark_weaver>obviously, these packages need to be maintained by someone in debian.
<mark_weaver>what a drag :-(
<tadni`>mark_weaver: I mean, I expect a resurgence of development, eventually, for guile-GNOME -- but yeah, the fact that we might miss a major distro release is a bit of a bummer.
<mark_weaver>I guess we'll just have to rely on packages outside of debian for now.
<rlb>we may not -- I'm not at all sure where this will end up -- though obviously I have some inclination toward avoiding having to deal with guile-1.8 for X more years.
<rlb>mark_weaver: well, another option is to just leave them in unstable (maybe guile-1.8 included), but not in jessie.
<tadni`>What programs are still heavily dependent on 1.8? Lilypond?
<tadni`>Anything else?
<mark_weaver>rlb: I think daviid is probably right that any packages that support guile 2.0 upstream but are built against 1.8 in debian should be removed.
<rlb>so would I say that "some of the guile upstream people have recommended..." when I'm describing the situation?
*rlb is just trying to gather a status update
<mark_weaver>rlb: sure, you can say that's my recommendation, as one of the guile maintainers.
<rlb>tadni`: here's the list I'm working on (at the end): https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=760986
<mark_weaver>rlb: but I'm only making that recommendation for packages that already support guile 2.0 upstream.
<rlb>mark_weaver: right
<mark_weaver>my rationale is that in such cases, I'd rather people build the upstream package from source against guile 2.0 than to continue using guile 1.8.
<rlb>mark_weaver: and did you mean removed entirely, or just from jessie, or no pref?
<tadni`>rlb: I meant outside of Debian, like actually still require -- require, 1.8.
<tadni`>Not just being built on it for some reason or another.
<rlb>tadni`: oh, no idea
*rlb only knows what dak tells him ;>
<mark_weaver>rlb: that's a good question. I guess it depends on whether removing them would significantly increase the difficulty of adding them back to debian after they have been updated.
<rlb>mark_weaver: certainly wouldn't be *as* easy iirc.
<rlb>though it could be faster I suppose -- depends on which takes longer, going through the proper maintainer MIA process, or getting a "new" package approved.
<rlb>of course someone could start the mia groundwork now...
<rlb>mark_weaver: wrt the maintenance of some of these packages, I'm very hesitant to take on more debian work right now -- though I suppose for packages that are well maintained upstream (with responsive upstreams), it might not be too much work.
<rlb>though I'm also hesitant to maintain things I don't use myself.
<mark_weaver>I think we should act on the assumption that those packages (g-wrap, guile-cairo, guile-gnome) are still active upstream and should eventually be part of debian again, when they have been updated to use guile 2.0.
<rlb>(or haven't used)
<rlb>suppose could also have collab-maint'ish setup for them...
<mark_weaver>so, with that in mind, I don't have a strong opinion on whether they should remain in sid. whatever you think is best.
<rlb>i.e. some set of people who can commit to a git repo, and then some subset of those that are maintainers and can upload to debian...
<rlb>(maintainers or developers)
<rlb>anyone heard anything more about lilypond's transition (
<mark_weaver>it's not going to happen in time
<rlb>I'm about to ping the debian maintainer)
<rlb>mark_weaver: ok, thanks
<mark_weaver>i wonder if I should apply to be a debian maintainer
<rlb>mark_weaver: be happy to have the help ;>
<rlb>mark_weaver: though there are also a lot of ways you might help without being a maintainer/developer...
<mark_weaver>I've always been intimidated by tales of how long and difficult the process is.
<mark_weaver>well, let's talk about this another time. currently, I have a 3.5 year old climbing all over me as I try to type this. probably time for a break :)
<rlb>mark_weaver: I can't shed much light there (wrt process) -- when I joined it was quite a bit different.
<rlb>mark_weaver: no problem -- thanks for the help
<rlb>mark_weaver: but fwiw, I'm very glad I joined.
<mark_weaver>rlb: thanks :)
*mark_weaver goes afk
***micro__ is now known as micro
***micro is now known as Guest1705
***Guest1705 is now known as micro^
*rlb can't figure out why dak still thinks swig2.0 depends on guile-1.8...
<rlb>(hmm, unless it uses g-wrap?)
<daviid>mark_weaver, rlb, just red the conversation, I confirm that I personally recommend the removal of gwrap, guile-gwrap and guile-cairo from bebian [testing unstable]
<rlb>looks like guile-cairo is just waiting on a package migration?
<rlb> https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=746001
*rlb checks to see why it hasn't migrated...
<daviid>rlb: the latest guile-cairo tarball does _nor_ include the patches required to proper integrate it with guile-gnome and guile-clutter
<daviid>s/nor/not
<daviid>it 'just' needs to be released, but it hasn't been done [in years]
<rlb>daviid: so you're saying that that upload's not going to work?
<rlb>i.e. the guile-cairo upload?
<rlb> https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=746001#22
<daviid>it will work for people using cairo on its own, but the guile-gnome [devel] and guile-gnome [clutter-devel] needs a guile-cairo built from a git clone
<rlb>so that package will break the guile-gnome-platform package?
*rlb may not understand the debian package mapping
<daviid>unless the nmu was done from a guile-cairo git clone yes
<rlb>no idea
<daviid>rlb: imh, it is _much_ better, for the time beeing, to recommend building these packages from their respective latest git branch: g-wrap [devel, for the latest doc], guile-cairo [master], guile-gnome [devel, guile-clutter [guile-gnome clutter-devel branch]
<rlb>mark_weaver: though I don't always enjoy *this* part of the job ;>
<rlb>daviid: here's what I have in my summary on the topic (not sent yet):
<rlb>"As a general comment, people on #guile, including one of the upstream
<rlb>Guile maintainers, have said that at this point, they would prefer that
<rlb>we remove packages from jessie that support Guile 2.0 upstream, but
<rlb>still depend on 1.8 (though we might or might not keep them in
<rlb>unstable). This was mentioned, in particular, with respect to g-wrap,
<rlb>guile-cairo, and guile-gnome-platform."
<rlb>
<daviid>sounds good to me
<daviid>don't forget to remove guile-gwrap as well
<rlb>that's not part of g-wrap?
*rlb goes to look
<rlb>i.e. is one not the source package for the other?
<daviid>i see 2 diff packages
<rlb>hmm, well dak only cares about one? I'll check.
<mark_weaver>daviid: what about the guile-cairo tarball at http://download.savannah.gnu.org/releases/guile-cairo/ ?
<mark_weaver>is that one new enough to include in debian without causing problems with guile-gnome?
<daviid>mark_weaver: i think it does not include latest pacthes wingo wrote 'for me' while binding clutter-1.10
<daviid>see it's been patched in 2012
<mark_weaver>I'm not sure those missing patches are sufficient justification for removing guile-cairo from debian, if we could have a slightly older guile-cairo in debian that works with guile 2.0
<daviid>mark_weaver: ok, but that guile-cairo won't work for guile-gnome
<mark_weaver>civodul: we are discussing whether to recommend the removal of g-wrap, guile-cairo, and guile-gnome from debian, since the versions in debian are for guile 1.8 but the upstream versions already support 2.0.
<mark_weaver>daviid advocates removing all of them
<mark_weaver>I agree that we should remove packages that support 2.0 upstream but use 1.8 in debian.
<mark_weaver>but there's still a question of guile-cairo, which could be easily fixed to support guile 2.0 in debian, but it's missing some recent patches needed to work with the latest guile-gnome.
<mark_weaver>civodul: what do you think?
*mark_weaver feels bad that all of these packages have supported guile 2.0 for a very long time, but the debian maintainer for those packages hasn't updated them :-(
<daviid>mark_weaver: it's also because we did not release
<mark_weaver>and now it's too late
<mark_weaver>daviid: well, there are *plenty* of packages in debian that are taken from git.
<daviid>oh really?
<mark_weaver>in fact, a lot of upstream devs are losing interest in cutting official releases, because debian will just use a git checkout instead, so why should they care? (grr)
<daviid>ah didn't know that
<daviid>anyway, my quizz is how will we explain that the debian guile-cairo pkg does work for guile-gnome?
<mark_weaver>if someone is going to go through the trouble of compiling guile-gnome from source code, it's not much more work to say they have to rebuild guile-cairo also.
<mark_weaver>on the other hand, guile-cairo is quite useful on its own
<daviid>why not an nmu from git then?
*rlb still has some concern having a newly update package in jessie with no maintainer to handle bugs...
<rlb>"updated"
<mark_weaver>yeah, the bottom line is that we need more help from debian devs/maintainers.
<daviid>right, and from that point of view... said my opinion already...
<civodul>mark_weaver, rlb: i think the guile-* packages in Debian should be updated to use Guile 2.0 when possible
<mark_weaver>and maybe that means one of us needs to become one of those things, to help from the other side.
<civodul>guile-cairo definitely works with 2.0
<daviid>civodul: they all do
<civodul>with zero patches, even
<civodul>yeah
<daviid>g-wrap, guile-cairo and guile-gnome-platform all work with guile-2
<civodul>so either switch them to 2.0, or add a "-2" version of each
<mark_weaver>civodul: our guile-cairo package in guix has a few substitutions to compile with guile-2, but it's quite trivial
<civodul>mark_weaver: yes, and it's mostly about setting installation dirs
<rlb>I could probably help fix them wrt nmu uploads, though it'd have to be fast...
<mark_weaver>though the prerelease in http://download.savannah.gnu.org/releases/guile-cairo/ probably works out-of-the-box with guile 2.0.
<rlb>I'll add that as a note to the status update.
<rlb>mark_weaver: and with help I could probably handle more packages -- i.e. your help with 2.0 was quite effective (thanks).
<mark_weaver>rlb: well, I'd certainly be willing to help more.
<rlb>but I'm not likely to have time to become a guile-gnome/platform/gwrap expert myself anytime soon.
<rlb>mark_weaver: well once I hear back from don wrt lilypond, I'll send the status update, and we'll see -- it could turn out to be irrelevant if debian decides that we're just going to keep 1.8.
<mark_weaver>if you have a little bit of time to spare, I think that updating guile-cairo to use guile-2.0 for jessie would be quite easy.
<rlb>(well not completely irrelevant)
<rlb>i.e. might still be good to have the other packages updated
<rlb>mark_weaver: ok, we'll see -- so far it's taken me hours today just to get the status info collected and double-checked...
<rlb>(and I still may have it wrong)
<rlb>(have to check the package, then the unstable->testing propagation, then the buildds, etc.)
<mark_weaver>rlb: thanks for all your work on this
<rlb>np -- happy to help
<rlb>mark_weaver: if I decide to proceed, I'll probably just (badger y'all and then) add the relevant packages to my public git repos for now.
<rlb>though eventually they might should be collab-maint (which I've never figured out :/)
<mark_weaver>please don't hesitate to badger us if we can help get more guile-2.0 updates into jessie.
<rlb>that might allow me to add others (even non-debian people?) as committers -- though with git that's not nearly as important...
<rlb>and if I continue to use git-dpm -- other people might rather just let me handle it ;>
<rlb>mark_weaver: ok -- thanks
<daviid>rlb: mark_weaver, the guile-2 will or will not contain the patch that breaks guile-gnopme?
<daviid>I mean the debian package?
<rlb>not sure what that is, but here's what's currently in debian: http://anonscm.debian.org/cgit/users/rlb/guile.git/tree/debian/patches?h=deb/guile-2.0/d/sid/master
<rlb>(on top of 2.0.11)
<mark_weaver>daviid: no, it won't contain that patch.
<daviid>ok, tx