Hi,
I think we should try to bump our GLib requirements more often. Slowly and conservatively, but regularly. To this effect I propose some sort of informal GLib version policy, something like: - whenever we release core/base, we look into bumping the GLib requirement for core/base (ie. right *after* the core/base release, not for the release itself) - we then look at all (stable) GLib 2.N.1 releases that are older than ~12 months, and pick the highest N. That's our new GLIB_REQ then. The overall effect would be that when we release the next core/base the required GLib version would be at least around 15-18 months old, which seems fair to me (and what I think emerged as acceptable consensus the last time we debated this issue on the mailing list). So: - GLib 2.N.1 would be at least 12 months old *when we bump the requirement* (at this point only affecting GStreamer hackers) - a core/base with this new requirement would be done ca. 3 months later, so at the time this new requirement hits GStreamer consumers and distributors the GLib version required would be at least 15 months old - any GLib 2.N.x series will typically be maintained and in use for 6-9 months (random info on the side) Thoughts? Sound good? Cheers -Tim ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Open Source Business Conference (OSBC), March 24-25, 2009, San Francisco, CA -OSBC tackles the biggest issue in open source: Open Sourcing the Enterprise -Strategies to boost innovation and cut costs with open source participation -Receive a $600 discount off the registration fee with the source code: SFAD http://p.sf.net/sfu/XcvMzF8H _______________________________________________ gstreamer-devel mailing list [hidden email] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/gstreamer-devel |
Tim-Philipp Müller wrote:
> Hi, > > I think we should try to bump our GLib requirements more often. Slowly > and conservatively, but regularly. > > To this effect I propose some sort of informal GLib version policy, > something like: > > - whenever we release core/base, we look into > bumping the GLib requirement for core/base > (ie. right *after* the core/base release, not > for the release itself) > > - we then look at all (stable) GLib 2.N.1 releases > that are older than ~12 months, and pick the > highest N. That's our new GLIB_REQ then. > > The overall effect would be that when we release the next core/base the > required GLib version would be at least around 15-18 months old, which > seems fair to me (and what I think emerged as acceptable consensus the > last time we debated this issue on the mailing list). > > So: > > - GLib 2.N.1 would be at least 12 months old > *when we bump the requirement* (at this point > only affecting GStreamer hackers) > > - a core/base with this new requirement would > be done ca. 3 months later, so at the time > this new requirement hits GStreamer consumers > and distributors the GLib version required > would be at least 15 months old > > - any GLib 2.N.x series will typically be > maintained and in use for 6-9 months (random > info on the side) > > Thoughts? Sound good? why would you like to bump requirements version when even an older glib can work properly? most enterprise distro has very old (in this sense) glib, but gstreamer can work even with that version. eg rhel/centos-5 has only glib2-2.12.3. even with that version all of the latest gstreamer can work. but if you bump version (without any good reason) we've to hack the tarball to be able to compile the latest versions on enterprise distros. so i vote against it. -- Levente "Si vis pacem para bellum!" ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Open Source Business Conference (OSBC), March 24-25, 2009, San Francisco, CA -OSBC tackles the biggest issue in open source: Open Sourcing the Enterprise -Strategies to boost innovation and cut costs with open source participation -Receive a $600 discount off the registration fee with the source code: SFAD http://p.sf.net/sfu/XcvMzF8H _______________________________________________ gstreamer-devel mailing list [hidden email] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/gstreamer-devel |
On Thu, 2009-02-19 at 17:51 +0100, Farkas Levente wrote:
> why would you like to bump requirements version when even an older glib > can work properly? most enterprise distro has very old (in this sense) > glib, but gstreamer can work even with that version. eg rhel/centos-5 > has only glib2-2.12.3. even with that version all of the latest > gstreamer can work. but if you bump version (without any good reason) > we've to hack the tarball to be able to compile the latest versions on > enterprise distros. > so i vote against it. So we can make use of all the new stuff that gets added to GLib at some point (obviously); because it makes life easier for developers if we can. It also decreases the divergence between a) the GLib version 99.9% of the users use [the people who install Fedora/ubuntu/debian and just use the version shipped with it] and that 99.9% of the GStreamer hackers use, and b) the minimum version that's required. This has many advantages, not least of them for debugging/bug triaging etc. Other than features, there are a bunch of GObject thread-safety issues which we can't work around fully in GStremaer and which are only fixed in later glib versions than 2.12. Just as an example. And: so we don't have to have this argument about whether the ability to make use of some specific feature in glib is worth bumping the requirement for all the time over and over again. At the end of the day it's a trade-off between maintenance ease/burden and convenience for consumers of GStreamer such as yourself. Following your line of argument (it works now just fine), there'll never be a really good reason. There are very very few people that feel like they need to run a bleeding edge GStreamer on top of a REALLY OLD distro release (I think it's fair to say that something older than 18 months is really old in open source land). Why can't you either (a) upgrade to a newer GLib [hardly something that is likely to screw up your entire system], or (b) build your bleeding edge GStreamer against a newer GLib in a non-system prefix? These seem perfectly acceptable technical solutions to me, and it seems to me like the only reason you're not in favour of my suggestion is that it would inconvenience you. Put differently (in good advocatus diaboli spirit): why should we/I care about something that inconveniences you / a small fraction of our end user base, but doesn't really pose any problems for you that can't be overcome? When it could make my/our life easier? Cheers -Tim ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Open Source Business Conference (OSBC), March 24-25, 2009, San Francisco, CA -OSBC tackles the biggest issue in open source: Open Sourcing the Enterprise -Strategies to boost innovation and cut costs with open source participation -Receive a $600 discount off the registration fee with the source code: SFAD http://p.sf.net/sfu/XcvMzF8H _______________________________________________ gstreamer-devel mailing list [hidden email] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/gstreamer-devel |
In reply to this post by Tim-Philipp Müller-2
On Thu, Feb 19, 2009 at 8:36 AM, Tim-Philipp Müller <[hidden email]> wrote:
> Hi, > > I think we should try to bump our GLib requirements more often. Slowly > and conservatively, but regularly. I've argued against this previously, but I think I've been sufficiently convinced that the burden to users/developers is not unreasonable, and the benefits sufficient, that this is a good idea. > > To this effect I propose some sort of informal GLib version policy, > something like: > > - whenever we release core/base, we look into > bumping the GLib requirement for core/base > (ie. right *after* the core/base release, not > for the release itself) > > - we then look at all (stable) GLib 2.N.1 releases > that are older than ~12 months, and pick the > highest N. That's our new GLIB_REQ then. > > The overall effect would be that when we release the next core/base the > required GLib version would be at least around 15-18 months old, which > seems fair to me (and what I think emerged as acceptable consensus the > last time we debated this issue on the mailing list). > > So: > > - GLib 2.N.1 would be at least 12 months old > *when we bump the requirement* (at this point > only affecting GStreamer hackers) > > - a core/base with this new requirement would > be done ca. 3 months later, so at the time > this new requirement hits GStreamer consumers > and distributors the GLib version required > would be at least 15 months old > > - any GLib 2.N.x series will typically be > maintained and in use for 6-9 months (random > info on the side) I _would_ prefer to see the requirement change a little less frequently that this, though. Once a year, for example, rather than twice a year. To give a concrete suggestion then: I'd change your proposal to do this after every second core/base release. I'm not going to actively campaign against your plan if you think this is a bad idea, though. Mike ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Open Source Business Conference (OSBC), March 24-25, 2009, San Francisco, CA -OSBC tackles the biggest issue in open source: Open Sourcing the Enterprise -Strategies to boost innovation and cut costs with open source participation -Receive a $600 discount off the registration fee with the source code: SFAD http://p.sf.net/sfu/XcvMzF8H _______________________________________________ gstreamer-devel mailing list [hidden email] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/gstreamer-devel |
Am Donnerstag, den 19.02.2009, 10:17 -0800 schrieb Michael Smith:
> On Thu, Feb 19, 2009 at 8:36 AM, Tim-Philipp Müller <[hidden email]> wrote: > > Hi, > > > > I think we should try to bump our GLib requirements more often. Slowly > > and conservatively, but regularly. > > I've argued against this previously, but I think I've been > sufficiently convinced that the burden to users/developers is not > unreasonable, and the benefits sufficient, that this is a good idea. > > > > > > To this effect I propose some sort of informal GLib version policy, > > something like: > > > > - whenever we release core/base, we look into > > bumping the GLib requirement for core/base > > (ie. right *after* the core/base release, not > > for the release itself) > > > > - we then look at all (stable) GLib 2.N.1 releases > > that are older than ~12 months, and pick the > > highest N. That's our new GLIB_REQ then. > > > > The overall effect would be that when we release the next core/base the > > required GLib version would be at least around 15-18 months old, which > > seems fair to me (and what I think emerged as acceptable consensus the > > last time we debated this issue on the mailing list). > > > > So: > > > > - GLib 2.N.1 would be at least 12 months old > > *when we bump the requirement* (at this point > > only affecting GStreamer hackers) > > > > - a core/base with this new requirement would > > be done ca. 3 months later, so at the time > > this new requirement hits GStreamer consumers > > and distributors the GLib version required > > would be at least 15 months old > > > > - any GLib 2.N.x series will typically be > > maintained and in use for 6-9 months (random > > info on the side) > > I _would_ prefer to see the requirement change a little less > frequently that this, though. Once a year, for example, rather than > twice a year. To give a concrete suggestion then: I'd change your > proposal to do this after every second core/base release. > > I'm not going to actively campaign against your plan if you think this > is a bad idea, though. this shouldn't be a too big problem for anybody IMHO. Most people will have a newer GLib by that time anyway and all other should be able to update GLib together with GStreamer... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Open Source Business Conference (OSBC), March 24-25, 2009, San Francisco, CA -OSBC tackles the biggest issue in open source: Open Sourcing the Enterprise -Strategies to boost innovation and cut costs with open source participation -Receive a $600 discount off the registration fee with the source code: SFAD http://p.sf.net/sfu/XcvMzF8H _______________________________________________ gstreamer-devel mailing list [hidden email] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/gstreamer-devel signature.asc (204 bytes) Download Attachment |
In reply to this post by michael smith-6-3
On Thu, 2009-02-19 at 10:17 -0800, Michael Smith wrote:
<snip> > I _would_ prefer to see the requirement change a little less > frequently that this, though. Once a year, for example, rather than > twice a year. To give a concrete suggestion then: I'd change your > proposal to do this after every second core/base release. > > I'm not going to actively campaign against your plan if you think this > is a bad idea, though. I guess whether or not the glib dep is updated really depends on whether there are new features in the new version, or bug fixes that can't be backported. I don't think anyone would bump up the version reqs without any forethought. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Open Source Business Conference (OSBC), March 24-25, 2009, San Francisco, CA -OSBC tackles the biggest issue in open source: Open Sourcing the Enterprise -Strategies to boost innovation and cut costs with open source participation -Receive a $600 discount off the registration fee with the source code: SFAD http://p.sf.net/sfu/XcvMzF8H _______________________________________________ gstreamer-devel mailing list [hidden email] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/gstreamer-devel |
In reply to this post by Tim-Philipp Müller-2
> Put differently (in good advocatus diaboli spirit): why should we/I care
> about something that inconveniences you / a small fraction of our end > user base, but doesn't really pose any problems for you that can't be > overcome? When it could make my/our life easier? It's a chicken and egg problem. Why is that user base small ? Because you make it hard for them to be big. If you apply this reasoning, why are you allowing the inconvencience of changes made to support Windows and MacOSX ? Our user base is much smaller there than on Linux. You're assuming the problems can't be overcome, and it's about as valid as them assuming your compatibility problems can't be overcome. Thread fixes are a strawman - we've had thread problems with pretty much every GLib series we've used, so you're going to be able to pull that one out basically forever :) I think you should just evaluate on a case-by-case basis. Only when you have a good enough argument to upgrade to glib (the cost of not upgrading outweighing the benefit) should you do it. Upgrading the requirements for the sake of upgrading as a standard practice sounds like the cart before the horse. Thomas -- And the awful weight spread across me when I wake is your loving arm around me -- Flumotion - the only way to stream! http://www.flumotion.net/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Open Source Business Conference (OSBC), March 24-25, 2009, San Francisco, CA -OSBC tackles the biggest issue in open source: Open Sourcing the Enterprise -Strategies to boost innovation and cut costs with open source participation -Receive a $600 discount off the registration fee with the source code: SFAD http://p.sf.net/sfu/XcvMzF8H _______________________________________________ gstreamer-devel mailing list [hidden email] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/gstreamer-devel |
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On Fri, 2009-02-20 at 18:50 +0100, Thomas Vander Stichele wrote:
> > Put differently (in good advocatus diaboli spirit): why should we/I care > > about something that inconveniences you / a small fraction of our end > > user base, but doesn't really pose any problems for you that can't be > > overcome? When it could make my/our life easier? > > It's a chicken and egg problem. Why is that user base small ? Because > you make it hard for them to be big. That's pushing it a bit. (cross-)compiling glib is *really* trivial. If that is one of the things stopping those user base getting bigger... they're in for a ride. Let's put it another way. Distro X Enterprise (with their 3 aeons support) doesn't update glib. Does it update anything else apart from critical security releases ? No. Will DistroCompany update gstreamer (if it's available for starters) ? No. Will it therefore update glib ? Maybe not... but that's not what's stopping them from updating GStreamer. I think you're looking at the problem the other way round. We've been doing tarballs/rpms/debs for some people who were using so-called enterprise distros to demo them gstreamer apps and it took... what... a few hours maybe ? That's GStreamer + dependencies + plugins + application. Did it require a rocket scientist ? No. Did it screw up their system ? No, because they were installed in a non-/usr prefix, therefore our software was the only one using that. > > You're assuming the problems can't be overcome, and it's about as valid > as them assuming your compatibility problems can't be overcome. > > > Thread fixes are a strawman - we've had thread problems with pretty much > every GLib series we've used, so you're going to be able to pull that > one out basically forever :) Is that a reason to stop us going forward ? Isn't it time we get them fixed ? What if it gets fixes for a small-user-base architecture/system ? Shouldn't they be able to use GStreamer too ? I don't want gstreamer to fix those issues just for GStreamer, I want all glib-based libraries/applications to benefit from it (including yours !). Edward ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Open Source Business Conference (OSBC), March 24-25, 2009, San Francisco, CA -OSBC tackles the biggest issue in open source: Open Sourcing the Enterprise -Strategies to boost innovation and cut costs with open source participation -Receive a $600 discount off the registration fee with the source code: SFAD http://p.sf.net/sfu/XcvMzF8H _______________________________________________ gstreamer-devel mailing list [hidden email] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/gstreamer-devel |
In reply to this post by michael smith-6-3
On Thu, 2009-02-19 at 10:17 -0800, Michael Smith wrote:
> I _would_ prefer to see the requirement change a little less > frequently that this, though. Once a year, for example, rather than > twice a year. To give a concrete suggestion then: I'd change your > proposal to do this after every second core/base release. I don't think it makes a difference whether we do this after every release or every second release, so either works fine for me (I just want to make use of new GLib features at some point without having to persuade everyone and their dog each time that I really can't backport the functionality or do without). Cheers -Tim ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Open Source Business Conference (OSBC), March 24-25, 2009, San Francisco, CA -OSBC tackles the biggest issue in open source: Open Sourcing the Enterprise -Strategies to boost innovation and cut costs with open source participation -Receive a $600 discount off the registration fee with the source code: SFAD http://p.sf.net/sfu/XcvMzF8H _______________________________________________ gstreamer-devel mailing list [hidden email] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/gstreamer-devel |
In reply to this post by Thomas Vander Stichele
On Fri, 2009-02-20 at 18:50 +0100, Thomas Vander Stichele wrote:
> > Put differently (in good advocatus diaboli spirit): why should we/I care > > about something that inconveniences you / a small fraction of our end > > user base, but doesn't really pose any problems for you that can't be > > overcome? When it could make my/our life easier? > > It's a chicken and egg problem. Not at all (see below). It's just about finding a reasonable trade-off that makes everyone equally unhappy. > Why is that user base small ? Because > you make it hard for them to be big. > > If you apply this reasoning, why are you allowing the inconvencience of > changes made to support Windows and MacOSX ? Because cross-platform support is part of our mission statement; we care, because we just do. Yet still, somewhere we draw a line, like when it comes to Windows 95/98. > Our user base is much smaller there than on Linux. My argument wasn't about numbers at all. It was about how far we want to go to accommodate rare/unusual deployment scenarios, and where to draw the line when it comes to the glib version required. Not more, not less. There are only so many people who feel like they have to run bleeding edge GStreamer on a many-year-old distro release (for good reasons, I'm sure). I saying that it's ok to ensure those people can still deploy a bleeding edge GStreamer on their many-year-old distro without too much additional effort, but that it's also ok if stuff doesn't work for them out of the box any longer (ie. with the glib version that happens to get shipped with that). (According to some statistics I just made up, 99% of our users use the GStreamer packages that get shipped with their distro, whether it's debian, fedora, ubuntu, RHEL, or whatever.) > You're assuming the problems can't be overcome, [...] I admit I am (based on experience or at least hear-say thereof). You seem to imply by your choice of words that this is not the case; if so, care to elaborate? > [...] and it's about as valid as them assuming your compatibility > problems can't be overcome. All points of view are 'valid' in a technical sense. Of course these issues can be overcome on the GStreamer side as well. We could have stayed with glib-2.8 or glib-2.4. At some point it just becomes a bit tedious, and it hinders progress (at least for those who actually actively work on GStreamer, add features, debug stuff, help people on irc, triage bugs, that kind of thing). Making GStreamer rock is more fun than doing backwards compatibility maintenance. GStreamer hackers leaning more towards one than the other would be more than just 'valid'. So it's back to finding a reasonable compromise. Hence my suggestion. I still think it's a reasonable trade-off. > Thread fixes are a strawman - we've had thread problems with pretty much > every GLib series we've used, so you're going to be able to pull that > one out basically forever :) True. And some is unlikely to ever get fixed because the GLib folks in question don't care. But that doesn't mean stuff actually improves over time. Because it does. And it makes supporting people, ie. random people on irc or with problems in bugzilla, easier (like when you're helping someone debug a problem on their embedded system, and 45 minutes later it turns out they were using glib-2.12 and running into a bug we know has been fixed for ages in later versions). In any case, it was just an example why our ancient GLib requirement is not all that clever. Of course if you're an insider you know this stuff. Outsiders will just think "Oh, 2.12 must be ok, let's use that then." (Some may even think it's the recommended version > I think you should just evaluate on a case-by-case basis. Only when you > have a good enough argument to upgrade to glib (the cost of not > upgrading outweighing the benefit) should you do it. This sounds very neat and commonsensical, but is really highly impractical (see this discussion and the last one and the one before that). Not least because there are close to zero costs to me and most active GStreamer hackers, but lots of benefits, while the equation is the other way round for people on the other side of the fence. I can find something I want to make use of in GStreamer in almost every single major GLib release. And that's just me. Do we really want to have this discussion every 6-12 months? I also think there's a value to things like the GLib requirement being predictable. With something like the policy I suggested everyone can plan in advance and everyone knows what the GLib requirement will be in the next 12, 18, or maybe even 24 months. Cheers -Tim ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Open Source Business Conference (OSBC), March 24-25, 2009, San Francisco, CA -OSBC tackles the biggest issue in open source: Open Sourcing the Enterprise -Strategies to boost innovation and cut costs with open source participation -Receive a $600 discount off the registration fee with the source code: SFAD http://p.sf.net/sfu/XcvMzF8H _______________________________________________ gstreamer-devel mailing list [hidden email] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/gstreamer-devel |
In reply to this post by Tim-Philipp Müller-2
On Thu, 2009-02-19 at 16:36 +0000, Tim-Philipp Müller wrote:
> Hi, > > I think we should try to bump our GLib requirements more often. Slowly > and conservatively, but regularly. (...) > Thoughts? Sound good? +1 Concerns regarding Enterprise distros have been raised, and IMHO if they want to update GStreamer I can't see any reason why they cannot update GLib too. After all it's ABI compatible, so they won't have to update any other packages depending on GLib. I'd say that the advantages of requiring a fairly recent version of GLib by far outweigh the disadvantages. Think added maintenance burden slowing down development, potential bugs and security issues in duplicated code, noise from users hitting MT issues caused by outdated GLib versions, etc. Cheers, Ole André ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Open Source Business Conference (OSBC), March 24-25, 2009, San Francisco, CA -OSBC tackles the biggest issue in open source: Open Sourcing the Enterprise -Strategies to boost innovation and cut costs with open source participation -Receive a $600 discount off the registration fee with the source code: SFAD http://p.sf.net/sfu/XcvMzF8H _______________________________________________ gstreamer-devel mailing list [hidden email] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/gstreamer-devel |
In reply to this post by Tim-Philipp Müller-2
Tim-Philipp Müller schrieb:
> Hi, > > I think we should try to bump our GLib requirements more often. Slowly > and conservatively, but regularly. > > To this effect I propose some sort of informal GLib version policy, > something like: > > - whenever we release core/base, we look into > bumping the GLib requirement for core/base > (ie. right *after* the core/base release, not > for the release itself) > > - we then look at all (stable) GLib 2.N.1 releases > that are older than ~12 months, and pick the > highest N. That's our new GLIB_REQ then. > nice to being able to use. I think a regular scheme has the benefit that it takes place. Like doing regular releases. If there is a know problem ith a new glib, then people will have issues with that one anyway, regardless if we requeire it or not. Stefan > The overall effect would be that when we release the next core/base the > required GLib version would be at least around 15-18 months old, which > seems fair to me (and what I think emerged as acceptable consensus the > last time we debated this issue on the mailing list). > > So: > > - GLib 2.N.1 would be at least 12 months old > *when we bump the requirement* (at this point > only affecting GStreamer hackers) > > - a core/base with this new requirement would > be done ca. 3 months later, so at the time > this new requirement hits GStreamer consumers > and distributors the GLib version required > would be at least 15 months old > > - any GLib 2.N.x series will typically be > maintained and in use for 6-9 months (random > info on the side) > > Thoughts? Sound good? > > Cheers > -Tim > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > Open Source Business Conference (OSBC), March 24-25, 2009, San Francisco, CA > -OSBC tackles the biggest issue in open source: Open Sourcing the Enterprise > -Strategies to boost innovation and cut costs with open source participation > -Receive a $600 discount off the registration fee with the source code: SFAD > http://p.sf.net/sfu/XcvMzF8H > _______________________________________________ > gstreamer-devel mailing list > [hidden email] > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/gstreamer-devel > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Open Source Business Conference (OSBC), March 24-25, 2009, San Francisco, CA -OSBC tackles the biggest issue in open source: Open Sourcing the Enterprise -Strategies to boost innovation and cut costs with open source participation -Receive a $600 discount off the registration fee with the source code: SFAD http://p.sf.net/sfu/XcvMzF8H _______________________________________________ gstreamer-devel mailing list [hidden email] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/gstreamer-devel |
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