[Development] Co-installation & library naming rules

[Thiago Macieira]

On sexta-feira, 12 de outubro de 2012 10.01.03, Lincoln Ramsay wrote:
> On 12/10/12 09:18, Thiago Macieira wrote:
> > The only tools that need renaming are the tools that are run by users but
> > are tied to a specific library version. That's basically qmake.
> > 
> > If we had a generic build tool that worked with multiple Qt versions (like
> > cmake), we wouldn't need to do it. Since our tool hardcodes Qt specifics
> > and is not backwards compatible with older versions, we need to. That was
> > our decision.
> 
> So why the arbitrary distinction of major version then?

It's not arbitrary. See the rationale and the other emails. But it boils down 
to the fact that we're breaking source compatibility and it is a major 
release, with major changes, changes we don't usually do in other releases.

> I can trivially produce source-incompatible builds of Qt from the source
> sources.

I don't see how that's relevant.

> Are we really going to guarantee that you'd never need more than one
> minor version of a specific major Qt installed at the same time?

Yes... that's the policy, at least per architecture. Whether we succeed or 
not, that's different. It's also what everyone else does. I don't see why we 
should be different.

> I don't see this as any different to a tool like the compiler.

Nor do I, for a user tool that maintains compatibility. qmake does not fit that 
description, so it's out.

> What I run in 99% of cases is gcc and the distro has decided which
> version that should be. For installing multiple versions, I can use the
> "complete" name (arch-platform-etc-version-gcc) or set my PATH to where
> that version's actual binaries are and continue to use gcc.

Sure, and that's fine if we wanted to have multiple qmake from the same major 
version installed, including for cross-compilations. What I'm asking for is to 
include the Qt major version as part of the differentiation, since it really is 
a change that people want to make.

-- 
Thiago Macieira - thiago.macieira (AT) intel.com
  Software Architect - Intel Open Source Technology Center
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