Bug#967773: Bug#1038572: Do we have resources to keep tiemu (Texas Instruments calculators emulator)

[Lionel Debroux]

Hi,

Upstream here.

 > > As far as I can see upstream is in low maintenance mode even if not
 > > inactive.  Do you think the used toolset will be changed in a
 > > foreseable time frame so keeping tiemu might be possible or is it
 > > rather probable we need to ged rid of this package?
 >
 > I filed an issue upstream quite some time ago [1], but it looks like
 > nobody is working on it.  I fear, after managing to keep the
 > TI-programs alive in Debian for quite some time, it's not worth the
 > effort to keep them for trixie and the time being.
 >
 > Best regards,
 >
 >    Andi
 >
 >
 > [1] https://github.com/debrouxl/tiemu/issues/6

I hereby want to record that the fact that TIEmu remained usable years 
into the 2020s (and technically still is, provided one uses 
long-deprecated building blocks) stems from a great decision, made more 
than 15 years ago, by the former maintainer of 
libti*/gfm/tilp/skinedit/tiemu, Romain Liévin. Namely, mandating onto 
contributors that the code base remain buildable and usable without the 
integration of GDB.

The GDB version was made of patched forks of outdated versions of 
various FLOSS code bases stitched together by a fragile build system. 
There was a weird event loop to dispatch events where they belong, for 
the UI or otherwise. There was no gdbstub integration.

The GDB version already wasn't very healthy in 2009-2010, and it would 
have been a maintenance nightmare ever since. Romain deserves credit for 
keeping that GDB integration optional: it made TIEmu low-maintenance, 
and allowed me + contributors to focus on other tasks, especially the 4 
libti*. It made more sense to work primarily on those, as they underlie 
TILP, TIEmu and another graphing calculator emulator, TilEm.


Regards,
Lionel Debroux.