[Kde-games-devel] Regarding Mancala

[Ian Wadham]

On Wednesday 05 May 2010 5:31:19 am Gaël (aka Kleag) wrote:
> On Tuesday 04 May 2010 10:53:52 Stefan Majewsky wrote:
> > Am Montag, 3. Mai 2010 23:51:03 schrieb Mauricio Piacentini:
> > > So I do not disagree, but I am not sure how we should handle this.
> > > Maybe it-s is right, and we should simply purge most games and
> > > implement a new level of quality needed (let us say for 4.6). Then we
> > > would only have very good games in the module, but I believe only 4 or
> > > 5 now would make the cut (KPat, KGoldrunner and maybe 2 or 3 more).
> > > This might not be a bad thing after all, it can be a shake up that
> > > will produce better stuff in the near future.
> 
> > I like this idea. In this step, we should also evaluate which parts of
> > libkdegames could be deprecated (or even removed; IIRC we do not
> > guarantee API/ABI stability of libkdegames for the whole KDE 4 cycle).
> > For example, the KGame library could be moved into KSirk's codebase, as
> > this is the only app using it (according to both LXR and grep), and KGame
> > is not maintained: The log says that the last non-krazy change was 19
> > months ago.
> 
> I'm not formally opposed to this move but even if it is not maintained, the
> point is that it just works... And in fact I don't understand why it is not
> more used by games, because it was really a great help for ksirk. Maybe the
> lack of documentation, advertisement, and tutorials simply explain that...
> 
Ditto for KGameCanvas which also "just works".  I have no objection to
building it into KGoldrunner source code if people do not want it in the
KDEGames Library.

It is unlikely that I will ever replace it with QGV, even if QGV might now
achieve the required performance.  That work should also be
accompanied by a rewrite of the KGoldrunner graphics code, which has
become rather messy, at the risk of introducing new bugs.  I just don't
have the time or energy for that.  I have been maintaining KGoldrunner
for longer now than any other program I have written and hell I am now
72 years old ... :-(

BTW, several of my programs have lasted 10 or 15 years or more, longer
than KGoldrunner so far, but others took over the maintenance after I moved
on.  That is the normal progression in the corporate world.

All the best, Ian W.