libsdl2 repository

[Felix Geyer]

On 22.05.2012 17:36, Manuel A. Fernandez Montecelo wrote:
> 2012/5/21 Felix Geyer <debfx-pkg at fobos.de>:
>> On 21.05.2012 17:01, Manuel A. Fernandez Montecelo wrote:
>>> Other than that, what's your idea about including some of these
>>> versions in unstable instead of experimental?
>> I think that's a bad idea unless upstream already guarantees
>> binary compatibility with the upcoming stable release.
>> [...]
>>
>> What's the problem with installing it from experimental?
>> I'm not sure if it's even a good idea to port applications when
>> upstream hasn't even released a beta version.
> It's not labelled as beta or anything, but it is available from
> http://www.libsdl.org/hg.php

They are labeled as "WARNING: UNDER CONSTRUCTION".

> These SDL guys really confuse me.  I saw bugs being closed in 2008 on
> the basis that it was fixed in the 1.3 (now 2.0) branch, and they 4
> years later there's no firm release yet.  With the move 1.3->2.0
> (around Jan 20) and lots of VCS activity at the time, I thought that
> the final release was somewhat imminent (at least, in time for the
> freeze), but it's not happening and there's no sign whatsoever.  I
> asked upstream about it around new year, no replies.
>
> However, I don't think that binary compatibility is very important at
> this point, and no packages in Debian should start depending on it
> carelessly -- it would be only for developers to test their
> applications and jump ship when ready.  I bet that there are dozens
> (if not thousands) of more ABI (even API) unstable libraries than SDL
> in Debian right now.

Right, but they still have to bump the SONAME and make sure their
reverse-dependencies keep working when they break the ABI.

Given that there is no beta release and no roadmap for 2.0 I think
experimental is where we should put SDL 2.0 until that changes.

> There're people trying to use it already, anyway:
> http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=669363
> http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?src=libsdl-1.3

That's great, I don't want to prevent anyone from using it.
In fact it shows that people know how to use experimental and there
is no need to put it into unstable. ;-)

Felix