[Debian-med-packaging] Bug#1060741: ball: Please port from sip4 to sip6

[Dmitry Shachnev]

Hi Andreas!

On Sat, Jan 27, 2024 at 07:56:46AM +0100, Andreas Tille wrote:
> I gave it a try by changing the Build-Depends first[1] and see what
> happens[2].  I think the problem is caused by this Python file[3] where
> I tried to replace
>
>   import sipconfig
>
> by
>
>   import sipbuild
>
> Since I'm lacking the knowledge about the new interface (and was not
> able to find the solution after a *quick* search in sip6-doc) I gave up
> here and ask for help.  I could forward the issue upstream but I would
> like to have a first idea about a patch.

It is much more complicated than just changing the module name.

SIP v4 (and v5, in compatibility mode) had a command-line tool that accepted
all relevant details about project configuration as command-line arguments.

In SIP v6, the project should have a pyproject.toml and, in most cases,
project.py files for that purpose. See [1] and [2] for examples of such files.
Sometimes, when the content of pyproject.toml can not be static, and it needs
to be generated at build time. For example, krita [3] and QGIS [4] do that.

If you want to see how a patch for porting to the new build system could look
like, take a look at [5] or [6].

There is an alternative approach that involves using sipbuild API directly,
without pyproject.toml file, however that API is poorly documented and can
change between releases.

But as porting is a major work (and sorry, I am more busy than I was in 2021
and I don't have time for that), I would recommend contacting upstream and
providing this information to them first. If a project is active, they will
have to do that anyway (SIP v4 does not support Python 3.11+). If the project
is dead, maybe it's not worth it, and ball should be removed from Debian?

[1]: https://github.com/frescobaldi/python-poppler-qt5/blob/master/pyproject.toml
[2]: https://github.com/frescobaldi/python-poppler-qt5/blob/master/project.py
[3]: https://invent.kde.org/graphics/krita/-/blob/master/cmake/modules/SIPMacros.cmake
[4]: https://github.com/kadas-albireo/QGIS/blob/master/python/CMakeLists.txt
[5]: https://github.com/GauiStori/PyQt-Qwt/pull/14
[6]: https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=964127#51

--
Dmitry Shachnev
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