<table><tr><td style="">pino added a comment.
</td><a style="text-decoration: none; padding: 4px 8px; margin: 0 8px 8px; float: right; color: #464C5C; font-weight: bold; border-radius: 3px; background-color: #F7F7F9; background-image: linear-gradient(to bottom,#fff,#f1f0f1); display: inline-block; border: 1px solid rgba(71,87,120,.2);" href="https://phabricator.kde.org/D14486">View Revision</a></tr></table><br /><div><div><blockquote style="border-left: 3px solid #8C98B8;
color: #6B748C;
font-style: italic;
margin: 4px 0 12px 0;
padding: 8px 12px;
background-color: #F8F9FC;">
<div style="font-style: normal;
padding-bottom: 4px;">In <a href="https://phabricator.kde.org/D14486#300844" style="background-color: #e7e7e7;
border-color: #e7e7e7;
border-radius: 3px;
padding: 0 4px;
font-weight: bold;
color: black;text-decoration: none;">D14486#300844</a>, <a href="https://phabricator.kde.org/p/staniek/" style="
border-color: #f1f7ff;
color: #19558d;
background-color: #f1f7ff;
border: 1px solid transparent;
border-radius: 3px;
font-weight: bold;
padding: 0 4px;">@staniek</a> wrote:</div>
<div style="margin: 0;
padding: 0;
border: 0;
color: rgb(107, 116, 140);"><blockquote style="border-left: 3px solid #8C98B8;
color: #6B748C;
font-style: italic;
margin: 4px 0 12px 0;
padding: 8px 12px;
background-color: #F8F9FC;">
<div style="font-style: normal;
padding-bottom: 4px;">In <a href="https://phabricator.kde.org/D14486#300823" style="background-color: #e7e7e7;
border-color: #e7e7e7;
border-radius: 3px;
padding: 0 4px;
font-weight: bold;
color: black;text-decoration: none;">D14486#300823</a>, <a href="https://phabricator.kde.org/p/pino/" style="
border-color: #f1f7ff;
color: #19558d;
background-color: #f1f7ff;
border: 1px solid transparent;
border-radius: 3px;
font-weight: bold;
padding: 0 4px;">@pino</a> wrote:</div>
<div style="margin: 0;
padding: 0;
border: 0;
color: rgb(107, 116, 140);"><p>Instead of updating the embedded copy of mdbtools, why not just switch to an external/system copy of it? This way tasks like <a href="https://phabricator.kde.org/T1361" style="background-color: #e7e7e7;
border-color: #e7e7e7;
border-radius: 3px;
padding: 0 4px;
font-weight: bold;
color: black;text-decoration: none;">T1361: Update to current mdbtools (July 2018)</a> will not be needed anymore (and your distro packagers will be happier).</p></div>
</blockquote>
<p>Hi Pino, we're getting such questions from time to time. mdbtools, as a great project that supports obsolete MS tech (according to MS itself), it is not mature (or widely used) enough to be versioned properly, separated to functional nonGUI/GUI parts, have BC in mind, all what's requirement of proper packaging. We're not eager to see KEXI depending on GTK+... glib is enough issue.</p></div>
</blockquote>
<p>Regarding the dependencies: the <tt style="background: #ebebeb; font-size: 13px;">libmdb2</tt> library package in Debian and derived distros, generated from the mdbtools source, depends only on glib; GTK+ seems to be used only by gmdb2, which is only one of the tools.</p>
<p>Regarding the stability: <tt style="background: #ebebeb; font-size: 13px;">libmdb.so</tt> has the same SONAME since its introduction in mdbtools 0.7, released 6 years ago, so IMHO there are no concerns about the BC/API stability (or they are low).</p>
<p>Regarding the maturity: of course, this is a "dog that chases its own tail" issue: if projects embed mdbtools instead of using a system copy, of course the upstream project is tested less. In Debian I found 3 projects using mdbtools:</p>
<ul class="remarkup-list">
<li class="remarkup-list-item">kexi: uses its own embedded copy</li>
<li class="remarkup-list-item">libgda (<a href="http://www.gnome-db.org/" class="remarkup-link" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer">http://www.gnome-db.org/</a>): uses its own embedded copy</li>
<li class="remarkup-list-item">recutils (<a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/recutils/" class="remarkup-link" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer">http://www.gnu.org/software/recutils/</a>): optionally uses a system version (no embedded copy)</li>
</ul>
<p>Obviously I cannot scientifically prove it, but I'm fairly sure the quality of upstream mdbtools would improve if both kexi and libgda switched away from their embedded copies.</p>
<p>Also, the Debian packaging has a couple of backports of fixes from upstream: since I package kexi in Debian, I really do not want to start doing this same job (i.e. backport fixes from another upstream) -- using the system copy means that I almost do not need to care, or if I do then fixing mdbtools will do the job.</p></div></div><br /><div><strong>REPOSITORY</strong><div><div>R71 Kexi</div></div></div><br /><div><strong>REVISION DETAIL</strong><div><a href="https://phabricator.kde.org/D14486">https://phabricator.kde.org/D14486</a></div></div><br /><div><strong>To: </strong>staniek, piggz<br /><strong>Cc: </strong>pino, Kexi-Devel-list, clybekk, barman, staniek<br /></div>