KDE/kdelibs

[Ian Wadham]

On Thursday 26 November 2009 10:18:52 am Andreas Pakulat wrote:
> On 25.11.09 20:49:42, Sebastian Trueg wrote:
> > SVN commit 1054298 by trueg:
> >
> > Nepomuk in kdelibs now depends on the new shared-desktop-ontologies
> > package which is developed in the OSCAF project[1] - a joint forces
> > project by members of Nepomuk-KDE, Strigi, Tracker, and other research
> > partners such as DFKI Kaiserslautern or DERI Galway.
> >
> > After this commit I will start to remove all copies of ontologies from
> > the KDE svn.
> 
> IMHO:
> As this is clearly not a bugfix, the cmake-parts are apparently broken
> (see Alex mail), its not in the feature plan and you didn't announce
> this new dependency anywhere I think you need to revert this and wait
> with it for KDE 4.5. You completely ignored any policies we've setup for
> kdelibs development.
> 
IMHO also:
Quite apart from any breach of rules that may have taken place, I object
in principle to new KDE library dependencies being introduced at the
instigation of one developer or group of developers, presumably for the
convenience of their own work, not just in this case but in several other
cases in the past.

What it means is that *every* developer who wants to update the libraries
he/she normally uses, for any reason at all, has to go and find the required
package, download it, build it, etc, etc, regardless of whether they have
any use for it or even know what it is [1].  That process is repeated hundreds
of times around the globe by one KDE developer after another ...  FAIK
it may also affect the work of distros and eventually end-users.  In this
case, for example, will the average user need this ontologies thing?

Surely there is a better way?  I am certain there must be ...

Cheers, Ian W.

[1] My dictionary defines "ontology" as "the branch of metaphysics dealing
     with the nature of being", but I doubt if it means that in this case.