[Development] Where and how does Qt define which platforms are supported?

[André Pönitz]

On Wed, Oct 23, 2013 at 09:38:32AM +0100, Thiago Macieira wrote:
> On terça-feira, 22 de outubro de 2013 13:33:04, Vladimir Minenko wrote:
> > Finally, a search over emails on the dev list
> > (site:lists.qt-project.org/pipermail/development) brings more
> > classifications/proposals:
> > http://lists.qt-project.org/pipermail/development/2012-November/007876.html
> > 
> > The purpose of this email is not to point out something what is not done or
> > wrong. The purpose of this email to initiate a discussion and a work to get
> > this done and create a clear definition where Qt runs on and how related
> > platforms are classified.
> > 
> > Opinions/feedback? Who is going to join a work on this? Can this topic get
> > on the todo list for the final 5.2 release?
> 
> Hi Vladimir,
> 
> Thanks for bringing this up.
> 
> The agreement is like this:
> 
> * Reference platforms: a choice by the Qt Project, implies what platforms we 
> are required to write code for and test on for any new features in the Qt 
> Essential modules, unless there's a strong overriding reason (like 
> QWinEventNotifier).
> 
> * Tiers: support level of a given release, at the time of that release.
> 
> Tier 1 are the platforms that have had extensive testing during the release 
> cycle, have had their P0 and P1 bugs fixed before the release and have a team 
> offering long-term commitment to continue supporting (at least two minor 
> releases).
> 	Examples: reference platforms, QNX / Blackberry, Android
> 
> Tier 2 are the platforms that have had some testing during the release cycle 
> but did not fix all their P0 and P1 bugs and/or cannot commit to the support.
> 	Examples: FreeBSD, Solaris
> 
> Tier 3 are the platforms that have been known to compile in the past, but for 
> which no release-time testing has been done and/or cannot offer any support 
> level.
> 	Examples: Solaris, OS X without XCode, Linux with Clang, etc.
> 
> (I know Solaris is on two example lists, it depends on whether there is any 
> offer of support by anyone)
> 
> That in turn means we need to produce a list of platforms per tier at *every* 
> minor release.

One point that seems to be missing in these considerations is a clearly
communicated distinction between "actual state" and "intended state".

The use of "Tier" currently sems to close to "actual" state, and "reference
platform" close to "intended" state. Unfortunately, that's not fully
aligned with the expectations of an unsuspecting observer, at least not
with mine, as a non-native speaker.

Andre'