Review Request: Make DBusMenuQt optional

Fri Aug 6 19:40:44 BST 2010

> On 2010-08-04 16:08:34, Aurélien Gâteau wrote:
> > The change looks OK, but I am wondering why you do not want to link with DBusMenuQt. Having (very) different code paths is potentially a source of trouble for maintenance.
> 
> Marc Mutz wrote:
>     Having that kind of library as a hard dependency of KDE is just gross. Have a look at what other libraries kdelibs depends on, and how many of them are actually required. This library is used for a one-liner, literally. It shouldn't be required, esp. as there doesn't seem to be any release yet.
>     Symptomatic post: http://www.mail-archive.com/kde-buildsystem%40kde.org/msg05473.html
>     IIRC, there once was a policy to not require new (hard) dependencies in new releases. Seems to have slipped off the radar, though.
>     
>     On top of that, on mobile, every dependency we don't have to have on the phone is a good dependency :)
> 
> Aurélien Gâteau wrote:
>     I don't see how depending on such a library is "gross", can you explain a bit more?
>     
>     Regarding the message you refer to, I agree the dependency could have been introduced in a much nicer way and I acknowledged this on my blog ( http://agateau.wordpress.com/2010/04/29/about-dbusmenu-holidays-and-other-hacks/ ). I thought that episode was behind us now.
>     
>     Regarding the lack of releases, here is the url where you can download release tarballs: https://launchpad.net/libdbusmenu-qt/+download . There is a link to the Launchpad page in the FindDBusMenuQt.cmake file.
>     
>     When DBusMenuQt is not used, the application is in charge of showing the menu, not the system tray. This is what I mean with a very different code path. I won't oppose against the change, though. I think the decision should be up to Marco Martin (can you add him to the "People" field?)
> 
> Marc Mutz wrote:
>     > I don't see how depending on such a library is "gross", can you explain a bit more?
>     
>     Sorry, it's not the depending on it per se. I find it gross that DBusMenuQt is required when it's only used in a single file in the notification subsystem of kdeui whereas not even OpenSSL is a required dependency, without which you can't even use half the world's web sites.
>     
>     > Regarding the lack of releases, here is the url where you can download release tarballs:
>     > https://launchpad.net/libdbusmenu-qt/+download .
>     > There is a link to the Launchpad page in the FindDBusMenuQt.cmake file.
>     
>     All that the macro_log_feature() in kdelibs/CMakeLists.txt told me was to git-clone something. I didn't occur to me to look in FindDBusMenuQt.cmake for a link to releases :)
> 
> Marc Mutz wrote:
>     Oh, and what does libdbusmenu-qt do on Windows, WinCE, and OSA X?
> 
> Aurélien Gâteau wrote:
>     > I find it gross that DBusMenuQt is required when it's only used in a single file in the notification subsystem of kdeui
>     
>     One half of DBusMenuQt is used in kdeui, the other half is used in the systemtray applet (which you would need to patch as well).
>     
>     > All that the macro_log_feature() in kdelibs/CMakeLists.txt told me was to git-clone something. I didn't occur to me to look in FindDBusMenuQt.cmake for a link to releases :)
>     
>     The url is an argument to find_package_handle_standard_args(), not a comment. I assumed it would show up when you ran cmake and it failed to find the library. I may be wrong.
>     
>     > Oh, and what does libdbusmenu-qt do on Windows, WinCE, and OS X?
>     
>     Honestly I don't know, but I know the KDE Windows people have contributed patches to ensure it builds, so I guess it works.
> 
> Volker Krause wrote:
>     It even builds on WinCE, but there is definitely no host using it, so it's just using rare resources without any benefit.
> 
> Aaron Seigo wrote:
>     on WinCE / Windows Mobile and MacOS, there isn't a host. on MS Windows, there are people who use Plasma Desktop as their shell (i know because we get bug reports from them :P), and at that point there is a host on that platform (though the system tray needs some additional porting on the Windows platform as it doesn't yet support the native icons) ... probably more details than needed. :)

regarding this: "there once was a policy to not require new (hard) dependencies in new releases. Seems to have slipped off the radar, though."

yes, i remember that as well (for kdelibs, anyways) and think we should get that back on track. unless there are any objections, i will add some text to this affect to the library policy page here so that we can make it part of our institutional memory, aka "the policies wiki":

          http://techbase.kde.org/Policies/Library_Code_Policy

- Aaron

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http://reviewboard.kde.org/r/4898/#review6793
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On 2010-08-06 12:34:16, Marc Mutz wrote:
> 
> -----------------------------------------------------------
> This is an automatically generated e-mail. To reply, visit:
> http://reviewboard.kde.org/r/4898/
> -----------------------------------------------------------
> 
> (Updated 2010-08-06 12:34:16)
> 
> 
> Review request for kdelibs, Plasma and Marco Martin.
> 
> 
> Summary
> -------
> 
> Make DBusMenuQt optional.
> 
> 
> Diffs
> -----
> 
>   /branches/KDE/4.5/kdebase/workspace/CMakeLists.txt 1159836 
>   /branches/KDE/4.5/kdebase/workspace/ConfigureChecks.cmake 1159836 
>   /branches/KDE/4.5/kdebase/workspace/config-workspace.h.cmake 1159836 
>   /branches/KDE/4.5/kdebase/workspace/plasma/generic/dataengines/statusnotifieritem/CMakeLists.txt 1159836 
>   /branches/KDE/4.5/kdebase/workspace/plasma/generic/dataengines/statusnotifieritem/statusnotifieritemsource.cpp 1159836 
>   /branches/KDE/4.5/kdelibs/CMakeLists.txt 1159039 
>   /branches/KDE/4.5/kdelibs/ConfigureChecks.cmake 1159039 
>   /branches/KDE/4.5/kdelibs/config.h.cmake 1159039 
>   /branches/KDE/4.5/kdelibs/kdeui/CMakeLists.txt 1159039 
>   /branches/KDE/4.5/kdelibs/kdeui/notifications/kstatusnotifieritem.cpp 1159039 
> 
> Diff: http://reviewboard.kde.org/r/4898/diff
> 
> 
> Testing
> -------
> 
> Compiles w/o DBusMenuQt present.
> 
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Marc
> 
>

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