Re: The fate of ditaa.jar (9.4.5.)

[Dr. Arne Babenhauserheide]

Arthur Miller <arthur.miller@live.com> writes:

> Jarmo Hurri <jarmo.hurri@iki.fi> writes:
>
>> Greetings.
>>
>> "Dr. Arne Babenhauserheide" <arne_bab@web.de> writes:
>>
>>> Arthur Miller <arthur.miller@live.com> writes:
>>>
>>>> By the way, how difficult is to download one file from the internet
>>>> (ditaa.jar) if you are an user?
>>>
>>> That’s not the point. The point is that every single user with a ditaa
>>> block has to do it.
>>>
>>> Ask the other way round: What is the benefit of removing ditaa from
>>> org?  If you want to force most current org-ditaa users to unbreak
>>> their setup after update, there should be a significant tangible
>>> benefit.
>>
>> I agree.
>>
>> One thing I like about org is that most things work out of the box.
>
> If bundled ditaa is not compatible with jre installed on users
> computer, or there is no jre installed, and user is not a programmer or
> used to Java, how many steps it adds to such a user to sort out why org
> does not work for him/her "out of the box"? Just to save some experienced
> user an extra step, that probably does not even affect them since they
> already have java and ditaa on their computers.

The difference is not about the difference between experienced or
beginner. The difference is that „use your package manager to get Java“
or „get openjdk“ is an operation that only uses standard installation
processes.

„Get this jar-file from somewhere and drop it somewhere and then change
this configuration to point to it“ is not a standard installation
action.

If Java is missing, org can simply report „no java found, please install
openjdk from <linux: your package manager | windows/macos:
https://adoptopenjdk.net/installation.html>“ and the user can install it
like any other software.

This is not the case with ditaa. Ditaa is no standard application with
installer/setup/…, but a jar-file.

And removing it breaks existing setups when org-mode is updated.

Best wishes,
Arne
-- 
Unpolitisch sein
heißt politisch sein
ohne es zu merken

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