KDE 4.7 Beta1 (4.6.80) tarballs uploaded (try#1)

[Sebastian Kügler]

Hi Eric, others,

On Saturday, May 21, 2011 19:28:58 Michael Pyne wrote:
> On Sunday, May 22, 2011 02:15:25 Modestas Vainius wrote:
> > On sekmadienis 22 Gegužė 2011 00:29:10 Wulf C. Krueger wrote:
> > > > The turn of events with KDE 4.7.x is most unfortunate. I noticed
> > > > an
> > > > explosion of source tarballs.
> > > 
> > > I strongly disagree. Splitting KDE SC up more is a step in the right
> > > direction as it allows for easier control about what to install.
> > 
> > Since unrelated or slightly related applications are no longer bundled
> > in
> > the same source package, each package is faster to build and links fewer
> > system components together.
> 
> I am sure that the Slackware packagers are aware of that benefit, given that
> they're doing the packaging. ;)
> 
> > > > I am afraid that for Slackware, the bloat in KDE packages is not
> > > > acceptible from a maintenance point of view.
> > > 
> > > Again, I disagree. Yes, it's a bit more work but it reduces the
> > > "bloat"
> > > for users in the end. Most people don't need everything KDE SC has
> > > to
> > > offer and, thus, it's well worth some effort.
> > 
> > The split does not bloat KDE SC since it has been bloated for a long
> > time
> > already.
> 
> I think his point is that is bloats the *number* of individual KDE packages,
> which is incontrovertible (and as Eric noted, also the reason that
> Slackware itself no longer packages GNOME).
> 
> I think that "all" that Eric is asking for is a KDE-provided "meta" package
> re-lumping individual packages together for ease of packaging. Slackware
> third-parties could provide individual split packages if it were highly
> desired by their users.

(Adding back kde-packagers to CC:)

Eric, is the number of packages what you mean by bloat? I'm asking since the 
priorities for different distros are quite different, some even split out the 
tarballs we release further.

It's a bit unclear what is meant by bloat, the definition I hear most often is 
too many features that you cannot get rid of. Most people are regarding more 
modularity with less interdependencies as "less bloated". In order to make 
packagers happier, we need to know what this kind of "generic" term means.

Also, as to the reasons for these changes is our move to Git, and the 
restructuring of modules that come with it. (Our git modules are way more 
fine-grained than the SVN 'modules' (subdirectories) have been, but I fully 
expect it to calm down before 4.7. If you prefer large lumps, that is 
something we would really like to know, so we can discuss how we release the 
tarballs keeping that in mind. As you might note, it's not the same for all 
distros and packagers wether tarballs should contains a lot, or be very fine-
grained. (For sure it shouldn't change with every release.) The overall trend 
within KDE (also already in 3.x times) has been smaller tarballs and more 
modularity.

BTW, I'm not sure the dependency on kdelibs-experimental is actually on 
purpose, might be just a development screwup we're uncovering in the beta 
release (which is partly the reason of doing a beta in the first place, of 
courrse.)

Cheers,
-- 
sebas

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