[Debian GNUstep maintainers] Bug#885786: gnustep-back: Please drop art backend package

[Yavor Doganov]

Control: tags -1 - patch

Jeremy Bicha wrote:
> Source: gnustep-back

> Could you please help by removing the art backend package? It doesn't
> have any reverse-depends in Debian.

I'm afraid we'll have to postpone this request.  Thanks for the patch,
but I'm formally removing the patch tag because it is incomplete: it
doesn't take into account the alternatives system and the maintainer
scripts.  However, this is not an issue at all; dropping the art
backend is straightforward and would be an easy thing to do -- we
certainly don't need patches to carry out this trivial job.

> [1] https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2017/10/msg00299.html

I don't see gnustep-back in the list of packages here; it's probably
because libart is (was) way down the (old) GNOME stack and isn't
really a GNOME library, although it has always been under the GNOME
umbrella.

It is very important for us to have at least two GNUstep backends
available in Debian.  That way, we can distinguish GUI vs. Back bugs
and also backend-specific bugs that only apply to a particular
backend.  We always invite bug reporters to try to reproduce with the
other backend, it sometimes helps to narrow down the problem.

The art backend has been deprecated upstream (GNUstep) for a long
time, but it's still useful and in some situations provides better
rendering of fonts in particular.  It has its issues (mostly #749233)
but cairo has other problems as well.

There are several options:

  1) Wait for the opal or wayland backends to be labelled "ready for
     release".  We can drop art immediately then.

  2) Package the old xlib backend.  This is even more deprecated; the
     only good news is that Xlib is not going away soon.

  3) Take libart under our umbrella.  (Provided it's a viable option
     in the first place.)

  4) Just leave the cairo backend.