Re: Package building

[Sergii Stoian]

Hi Johannes,

On Nov 15, 2019, at 10:13, Johannes Brakensiek <johannes@brakensiek.info> wrote:

> Hi Sergii,
> 
> On 5 Nov 2019, at 1:48, Sergii Stoian wrote:
> 
>>> I know NEXTSPACE and really like your project! My goals are somewhat lower 
>>> currently: I’d be glad if I had some packages for GNU/Linux systems 
>>> providing the new runtime/clang based libraries. Default Debian packages 
>>> use gcc and I cannot ship a new app on this basis. I don’t like to be 
>>> limited to one distribution type though, so I thought about using something 
>>> like https://openbuildservice.org/ and/or https://launchpad.net/
>>> 
>> Oh, now I understand what you’re talking about. I have plan to setup CI 
>> environment (Jenkins? Travis?).
> 
> yeah, that would be great. Maybe you would like to risk a look into 
> openbuildservice? Having some installable packages built automatically would 
> be great.

Interesting idea… I’ll look at it later.

> 
>>> If you would build your work for NEXTSPACE in a way like this, a big hurdle 
>>> regarding the basic libraries would be already achieved of course. 
>>> Providing an app would be easy and installing an app would be as simple as 
>>> „apt install my.app“ then.
>> Current state of the NEXTSPACE is somewhat special… I use particular (not 
>> cutting edge) versions of GNUstep libraries (gui and back) with custom 
>> patches. So build (or CI) process - along the NEXTSPACE part - should build 
>> custom GNUstep libraries. Is it fit to your goals?
> 
> Well, currently not. But as soon as you are able to use the upstream libs it 
> would be of great use of course.

Some patches already went upstream, some others not yet. It’s planned anyway. I 
use ART backend and it stopped working after 0.25.0 release. I need to fix ART 
first before I can return to master branch...

> 
>>> Once this is done I would like to build a package applying some nice icons 
>>> and styling like Bertrand has created and bundled in his repositories.
>> NEXTSPACE contains its own fonts, icons and mouse cursors with true NeXTSTEP 
>> look and feel. I’m afraid it is not what you want to do.
> 
> Yeah, it’s not as well. But did you obtain the ability of GNUstep for using 
> themes? That way one could use the software you wrote and create a friendly 
> fork providing a different look and feel. That would allow some merges with 
> the development of the Etoile project f.e. and would be a very nice thing, in 
> my opinion. It seems to me this community is too small for having multiple 
> desktop approaches, considering the aim one should be useful for everyday 
> tasks once.
> 
Frankly speaking I don’t like themes idea almost totally. It’s hard to achieve 
desired look and feel with themes without coding (overriding some class 
methods). Plus themes support bloats the GNUstep codebase. I understand that 
the initial idea was to attract more users/developers, but… It’s not working.
So, I want to make ideal NEXTSTEP interface first. Who knows maybe some day 
I’ll want to change it to macOS-like… ;)

Etoile is great effort to create macOS-like DE with great fundamental 
frameworks inside. I wish to borrow some  of them someday… But its development 
stopped AFAIK. 
> 
>>> (To test the libraries I have built I’m trying to make GWorkspace work. I’m 
>>> doing this to get known to the environment and to check out whether there 
>>> are bugs within GWorkspace, the libraries or my setup. When you have a new 
>>> Workspace working once I’d like to test it as well.)
>> NEXTSPACE has it’s own genuine Workspace, Window Manager, Preferences, 
>> Terminal and so on. It’s already working and functional - give it a try. :)
> 
> Sounds great. Regarding upstream compatibility see my question/thoughts above.
> 
> Johannes
>