Bug#1098324: libsdl2-net-dev: Upgrade request to support SDL3 net dev

[Simon McVittie]

Control: reassign -1 wnpp
Control: retitle -1 RFP: libsdl3-net -- Network library for Simple DirectMedia Layer 3
Control: affects -1 + src:libsdl2-net

On Wed, 19 Feb 2025 at 08:46:24 +0200, Hlib wrote:
> Dear Maintainer, can you please add SDL3 net includes to the dev package? There
> is SDL3 dev in Trixie already but no SDL3 net.

It's a separate library and would have to be maintained in parallel,
so I'm reassigning this as a request for packaging of the SDL3 version
of the library.

SDL_net was effectively unmaintained for several years, and the SDL2
version was never a very high-quality networking library (for example
it didn't support IPv6) and is not used by many games as a result, so
its SDL3 version was never a high priority for me. Most games seem to
prefer using the BSD sockets interface directly.

Is there a game that you have in mind that requires this library?

The SDL3 version of SDL_net seems much more alive than the SDL2 version,
but there have not been any preview releases and its API/ABI are not yet
stable, so it is not yet ready to be included in the next Debian stable
release. The steps that it will have to go through are:

- git snapshot packaged in experimental, API/ABI are not stable, not really
  practically useful yet because upstream is still breaking the API
  (libsdl3-mixer is at this point)

- 3.1.x preview release available upstream, API/ABI believed to be stable,
  can upload to unstable with a RC bug preventing migration to testing
  (libsdl3-ttf is at this point)

- 3.2.x stable release available upstream, can migrate to testing
  (libsdl3-image and libsdl3 core have reached this point)

If upstream is interested in having libsdl3-net packaged, then I might be
able to get some time allocated for packaging and maintaining it, but it's
unlikely to ever be my top priority for either my paid or volunteer work.

If someone wants to help with packaging and maintaining this, please
take a look at the libsdl3-mixer packaging as a reference - libsdl3-net
would likely be very similar. As with most new Debian packages, the
most time-consuming part will be auditing the upstream code to check
that all copyright/licensing is as we expect and there is no malicious
code included.

    smcv