[mono-packagers] Proposal to require Mono 2.4.2 and GTK# 2.12.9 for MonoDevelop 2.2

[Mirco Bauer]

Hi Michael,

On Tue, 18 Aug 2009 14:22:42 -0400
Michael Hutchinson <m.j.hutchinson at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi everyone,
> 
> Sorry for the cross-post but this could affect quite a few people.
> 
> I'd like to propose that we bump MonoDevelop's minimum GTK# version
> requirement to 2.12.9 and the Mono version to 2.4.2. Although these
> are fairly recent, they are by no means cutting edge, and they are the
> most stable versions currently available. These requirements would
> affect the upcoming MonoDevelop 2.2. release, which is currently
> scheduled for the end of October:
> http://monodevelop.com/Developers/Development_Roadmap
> 
> Rationale for requiring Mono 2.4.2:

Sounds ok, squeeze contains 2.4.2 and I made 2.4.2 backports for lenny
already.

> 
> * 2.4.x is a long-term stable Mono branch
> * The Mono debugger is *much* more usable in 2.4.x
> * MonoDevelop 2.0 required Mono 2.0, but trunk already requires Mono
> 2.2 because we use some functionality that doesn't work/compile on
> 2.0. Continuing to support 2.0/2.2 has a nontrivial maintenance cost.
> * There are some runtime issues in 2.2 that cause startup hangs. These
> are improved in 2.4, and the complete fix is expected to be backported
> from Mono 2.6 to the 2.4 branch.

Yeah, I am experiencing those hangs from time to time on Mono 2.4.2 and
started to wonder already.

> * MonoDevelop 2.2 will have the ability to target parallel runtimes,
> so developers wishing to develop against older releases can use
> parallel Mono installations.
> 
> Rationale for requiring GTK# 2.12.9:

This one is only semi-good, lenny contains GTK# 2.12.1 but GTK+ 2.12.9,
so do you really mean GTK# 2.12.9? Squeeze is fine, that one has 2.12.9

> 
> * GTK+ 2.12 is now two years old, and very widely available.
> * We were primarily supporting GTK+ 2.8 in order to run on SLED10, and
> SLED 11 has now been available for a while.
> * Switching to 2.12 would enable us to tidy up a lot of hacks and
> workarounds, and move to some nicer APIs (e.g. tooltips), thus
> lowering our maintenance burden.
> * Requiring the 2.12.9 bugfix point release would fix quite a few GTK#
> issues, and would improve stability, particularly in Stetic.
> * MD can still be used to target older GTK versions, so this is only a
> requirement for developers using MD, not *their* users.
> 
> In summary, upgrading dependencies will help us to ensure that
> developers using MonoDevelop get the most stable experience possible,
> while also reducing the maintenance burden. MonoDevelop 2.0 will of
> course continue to be available for people who can't meet these
> requirements.
> 
> If you have good counter-arguments please put them forward ASAP.

From the Debian PoV what matters is are Debian/Stable backports of
MonoDevelop still feasible. If not, you will lock out C# developers
running Debian/Stable.

> 
> Thanks!
> 


-- 
Regards,

Mirco 'meebey' Bauer

PGP-Key ID: 0xEEF946C8

FOSS Developer    meebey at meebey.net  http://www.meebey.net/
PEAR Developer    meebey at php.net     http://pear.php.net/
Debian Developer  meebey at debian.org  http://www.debian.org/