Re: slrn 1.0 [2007-08-25]?

On Wed, Jul 18, 2007 at 11:27:14PM +0100, Peter J Ross wrote:

>>> Does it make sense to make iconv a "must" dependency and to remove
>>> all "have no iconv" code?

>> Definitely yes. That would ease maintenance.

>> Better to drop the possibility to port slrn to architectures which
>> don't come along with iconv (and which are not that very important
>> for the existing slrn-community in my eyes) and gain stability and
>> active developement in exchange for that.

> This would be a big change from the history of slrn (and s-lang). One
> of slrn's distinctive features is its exceptional portability. It
> would be sad if VMS support were lost.

Sure. But how many users would be affected and how much work will it be
to maintain that branch for non-iconv-systems in the future?

The amount of time, the maintainers and developers have, is limited.
That is a simple fact.

>> There are only few developers actively involved in slrn and one
>> should face that simple fact together with it's implications. The
>> iconv thing together with real utf-8 support *is* what is urgently
>> needed in the stable branch. And Developement would be easier without
>> the need to look at 1001 #ifdef possibilities which only a few people
>> in the world do really need or use.

> I certainly can't see any reason to support platforms that are no
> longer being developed.

For that the support for those platforms (MS-DOS, BEOS, etc) should end.

>> Version 1.0 is a good opportunity to drop slang 1.* and non-iconv
>> support. The mourning would surely come but it would be short ;-)

> There's no reason not to use slang 2 if it's available, and as far as
> I know it's available to everybody.

Yes.

> Currently, my efforts to suggest improvements to the documentation
> have been delayed by my ignorance of SGML, but I'm working on it.

> Meanwhile, here's yet another thought: can somebody be found to
> compile a Windows binary?

Cygwin should be sufficient and more easy. Native Windows support is not
necessary (nor desirable) since Cygwin is available for everybody.




Bernd

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
This SF.net email is sponsored by: Microsoft
Defy all challenges. Microsoft(R) Visual Studio 2005.
http://clk.atdmt.com/MRT/go/vse0120000070mrt/direct/01/