[maemo-developers] Keeping Glib up to date

[From: Graham Cobb]

On Wednesday 07 May 2008 09:07:16 Kimmo Hämäläinen wrote:
> Please make a bug for me to update libxml2 at some point. Usually I'm
> adhering to the well-known principle "do not fix it if it's not broken",
> because of years of experience has taught me there's some truth in it
> (when people come spank me for breaking their software). Btw. We've had
> some big problems with Glib upgrades in the past -- some builds broke
> and caused delays in SW deliveries -- you cannot really know in advance
> what will happen, thus the "do not fix it..." is quite wise.

I will create a bug for libxml2.

But, unfortunately, Nokia has got itself into a very difficult position.  Of 
course, as a software developer, I embrace the principle of "don't fix it if 
it ain't broke".  But Nokia wants Maemo to be a development platform, with a 
community of developers.  It cannot do that if it LOCKS the system into 
obsolete versions of important libraries.

If Nokia wants to continue with the Internet Tablets being a platform for a 
community of developers, it only has two reasonable choices:

1) Abandon the principle of "if it ain't broke..." and make a commitment to 
keep all system libraries up to date.  Clearly this will increase testing 
costs and also increase project risk (I used to be a development manager -- I 
feel your pain).  But, it can be done, if Nokia is willing to accept the 
increased cost.

2) Create a separate set of libraries (either nokiaglib, nokiaxml2, etc or 
a /usr/nokia/lib directory) for Nokia-provided applications to use and 
release the lock on the community upgrading normal system libraries.

I actually prefer option 2 because the problem is not only keeping libraries 
up to date.  For example (if I remember correctly), libopenobex in chinook 
has been built without bluetooth support (or something like that).  If Nokia 
are going to prevent us updating their libraries, I would prefer if their 
libraries did not have the same name as the real libraries.

I know Josh has suggested that the community do the opposite of option 2 (e.g. 
create /usr/maemo/lib) but I do not think that is realistic or feasible.  
Nokia has both the incentive and the staff to do and maintain option 2. The 
community does not.  And any solution has to apply to ALL libraries (for 
example, what if Nokia suddenly decided to use, and ship, libsoup in the next 
release, suddenly turning it from an updateable to a locked library) and be 
fully integrated with the SDKs.  Only Nokia are realistically in a position 
to do that.

Otherwise, one (or, more likely, both) of two things will happen: community 
support will decline (if I cant get Opensync to work I will start keeping a 
look out for an alternative toy for my next upgrade), or people will start to 
bypass Nokia's locks, replacing core system libraries anyway, and causing 
system instability.

Graham