[sane-devel] autoconf and configure

[littlesincanada]

Hi,

On 2019-09-01 5:54 a.m., Olaf Meeuwissen wrote:

> With sane-backends-1.0.28 we have dropped all generated files from the
> git repository[1].  People who clone the repository have to install the
> various autofoo utilities and run ./autogen.sh before they can do any
> development.  Our source tarballs include all the generated files (as
> per GNU Standards[2], especially the Release Process[3]).
> I think we should follow that direction for xsane as well.
Agreed.

> But perhaps we should get xsane's !1 merged first[4].
>
Yes indeed and that is well underway. I've chewed off the low-hanging 
patch fruit and I'm now looking at the more involved items.
In particular, GIMP has moved on quite a bit since the last xsane 
release. I can confirm that the plugin functionality still works fine 
but GIMP now does not have an Acquire menu item. So there's some 
investigation to be done. Some of that I will do today. (although I have 
to consider the family :D )

I took off another branch to start looking at the compile warnings. To 
maintain interest and variety.
There are an awful lot but they do centre around a small number of 
programming aspects many of which can be blown off fairly easily.

OK, some of my questions might seem like I'm jumping the gun a little, 
but I'm trying to put together a TODO list of things for the coming release.
I'll use gitlab to put together something like a roadmap of items to 
work through. For that I do need to know a bit more about established 
process.

Currently, that's looking something like (though not necessarily in this 
order):

1) Downstream patches
2) Compile warnings
3) autotools update:
 ?? a) Remove generated files
 ?? b) Update remaining files to conform with modern practice (e.g. 
configure.in->configure.ac)
4) Implement any remaining gitlab processes for release cycle
5) Updates required on displayed and source copyright notices depending 
of what has been agreed with Oliver.
6) Requests for translation. (Perhaps I could reach out to the po patch 
authors to see if they're also interested.)
7) Confirm current minimum supported dependency versions (I'm not sure 
that much if anything is required here, but I will think about it. I'm 
thinking primarily about GIMP)
8) Check internet links in source to make sure they point at the 
relevant gitlab and SANE web pages. Some of the downstream patches deal 
with this also.
9) Full regression testing, exploring all aspects of the application to 
ensure proper functioning. There is one compiler warning that signals a 
definite *serious* bug which I will have to deal with.
10) How do we announce the release to downstream? Do we just hope they 
notice or is there a process?

I suspect I will need some help from you for at least 4) above.

A lot more pie-in-the-sky for *much* later on would be a move to GTK3.

That's where my thinking is at the moment.
Feedback always appreciated.

Cheers,
Ralph