Comment 37 for bug 202174

Steve Langasek steve.langasek-at-canonical.com |AbiWord Bugzilla| wrote:
> Hi Ryan,
>
> On Mon, Apr 07, 2008 at 04:39:34PM -0000, Ryan Pavlik wrote:
>
>> Right now an issue is coming up with a compile-time-only dependency on a libasio-dev, which is just a collection of header files. Unfortunately, Ubuntu has this in Universe, and so to stay in Main and enable collaboration support (which requires this) is a bit complicated. The options are:
>> 1 - MIR libasio-dev (It has been reviewed by the boost c++ folks and will be included in a future version there, so I'm assured it is safe, and I know it is useful.) This is probably ideal.
>> 2 - Include an abiword-specific copy as a patch. Not ideal from the standpoint of code duplication, but I am used to tracking upstream deps closely, I must do the same for the Windows build. This might be the easiest - I already have a package (soon to hit the PPA) that should enable this solution.
>> 3 - Disable collaboration. This is really not ideal, as Ubuntu would be missing out on a major advancement. This does leave open the option of re-packaging abiword-plugins-universe, but I'd argue this is even uglier than #1
>> 4 - Demote AbiWord from Main to Universe. I am against this idea right now, due to the lost exposure (we have the top spot on a default open of Add/Remove... in Hardy, with 4 nice stars next to us) and perhaps the ambiguous statement changing "Supported Applications" to "All Applications" would make about AbiWord's viability (of course AbiWord is supported, as in not unmaintained, it's just that universe doesn't receive canonical's backing I believe).
>>
>
>
>> As it stands, I am in favor of #2 while I pursue #1 (the presumably
>> "right way" to do things). The package 2.6.2-0ubuntu0~ppa8 is building
>> right now, and should resolve all the concerns I presently have with the
>> package (implementing #2, and fixing the abiword-extras issue I had
>> earlier). Please review this package at your convenience - I will go
>> through the Sponsorship information later tonight or tomorrow.
>>
>
> I don't really like option #2 here. If there's some reason blocking us from
> including the asio source package in main, then we shouldn't be embedding it
> in other packages within main either. Please follow through on the MIR.
>
> If the MIR is refused, I would strongly favor option #3 instead. I
> understand that the collaboration support is an exciting new feature, but
> the biggest factor in favor of a freeze exception for abiword is "lack of
> support for 2.4", and I'm unconvinced that additional accomodations should
> be made in order to allow enabling this new feature at this stage of the
> release cycle.
>
>
I agree - I am working on getting the MIR taken care of, with some help
from #ubuntu-devel. If we need to go to #3, I will get an universe
package with collab. Thanks for your feedback and assistance.

Ryan