No promises, but…

...if you've been watching #kde-devel or #bksys, I've been working on helping ita and coolo (and others) work on bksys, in the hopes that we can make it happy with Mac OS X, and thus pick up porting KDE4 to Qt/Mac again.
I've got things to the point where they link, although bksys still has some very large deficiencies in support for the fundamental differences between OSX and other unixes.
I *think* tiger's dynamic loader is to the point where I can ignore the "everything's a dylib" issue for now, but there's still much to clean up.
If you're interested in helping out, drop by #kde-darwin and/or #bksys, and check the kde-nonlinux mailing list to keep up to date.

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Progress on getting KDE 3.4 to stable

Been making some good progress on getting KDE 3.4 to stable. If you're interested in seeing what all needs to be moved, you can check the KDE Packaging Progress page on the Fink Wiki.
As for packaging, I've got qt3 updated to 3.3.5. It turns out it has the annoying attribute of actually honoring the <includehint> entries in .ui files and is causing some of KDE to break. I'm working my way through all of the KDE packages to fix the bad .ui files now and should have them all cleaned up soon.
In the meantime, if you're building KDE and have failures, revert to qt 3.3.4 and try again.

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More Misc. Fink Updates

Been doing a lot more to catch up on my Fink packages (and updates to a few that aren't mine) and have been working on getting KDE 3.4.2 cleaned up in unstable.

  • amarok: updated to 1.3.1

  • boo: updated to 0.6

  • bundle-kde*: lots of cleanups to fix upgrades

  • cairo: updated to 1.0

  • glitz: fixed a minor libtool library issue

  • gstreamer & gst-plugins: updated to 0.8.11, modernized dependencies (libshout2, etc.)

  • kde/koffice i18n: fixed download issues

  • kdeaddons3: made a kdeaddons3 package (which includes kpackage and a few other misc. utilities)

  • kdepim3: really fix the kaddressbook/kmail crash this time (by using gpgme's pthread implementation, instead of pth)

  • libbonobo2 & libbonoboui2: updated to 2.10.1

  • libcapsinetwork: updated to 0.3.0 (to go along with monopd 0.9.3)

  • md5deep: new package, MD5/SHA1/etc. tool

  • monodevelop: fix building against Boo 0.6

  • monopd: updated to 0.9.3

  • pbzip2: multi-cpu-aware version of bzip2

  • system-openssl-dev: put some info in the package description on how to use it

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KDE 3.4.2 in Fink Unstable

I've updated KDE to 3.4.2 in Fink Unstable. The most notable changes are:

  • updated to 3.4.2 (heh)
  • removed ssl/non-ssl distinction, now it always links against the system-provided OpenSSL; created kdelibs3-unified and kdebase3-unified, with upgrade packages for backwards-compatibility (the only split-up package left is kgpg, and the kdesdk3-svn package, which has an ssl/non-ssl variant)
  • kdevelop should actually let you make ADA and C/C++ projects without bombing out (Java support is still disabled, the exception-handling code makes Apple's linker freak out)
  • updated to amarok 1.3 (gotta say, it's pretty damn sweet!)
  • koffice updated to 1.4.1
  • KXMLEditor updated to 1.1.4
  • many other miscellaneous changes
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Miscellaneous Fink Package Updates

I've been getting through a lot of my package backlog in the last week or two:

  • bash-completion: updated to 20050721

  • ekg: updated to 1.6-rc3, unified ssl/non-ssl versions to use the system OpenSSL, fixed build to work when python (= 2.4) is not installed (but python24 is)

  • libidn: updated to 0.5.18, added a -bin package so that libidn can be BuildDependsOnly

  • libmpcdec3: new package, version 1.2

  • libsamplerate0: new package, version 0.1.2

  • libsndfile1: not my package, but it's unmaintained, so I updated it to 1.0.11

  • qca: updated to use system OpenSSL

  • squid: unified ssl/non-ssl versions to use system OpenSSL, updated to 2.5-STABLE10

  • taglib: updated to 1.4

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Minor Fink PostgreSQL Updates

I've updated the PostgreSQL packages to use the system-provided OpenSSL instead of Fink's, so that I can provide packages that don't require the crypto tree. There are no code changes (other than an updated to PostGIS 1.0.3 from 1.0.2) so don't feel rushed to update, but it makes things easier for me in the long run. 🙂

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Mono updated in Fink unstable

I've updated the Fink Mono packages, everything should be completely up-to-date now as far as Mono goes. If you see any problems with them at all, please let me know.

  • mono (1.1.7-1 to 1.1.8.3-1) - open-source .Net implementation

    updated to 1.1.8.3, environment cleanups

  • ecj (new package, 3.1) - the eclipse java compiler

  • boo (0.5.5.1651-1 to 0.5.6.1701-1) - .Net-based programming language

    updated to 0.5.6, now depends on gtksourceview-sharp 2.0, environment cleanups

  • ikvm (0.14.0.1-1 to 0.18.0.0-1) - .Net-based Java implementation

    updated to 0.18.0.0, environment cleanups

  • nant (0.85-0.rc3.1 to 0.85-1) - .Net build tool

    environment cleanups, updated to use mono in --debug mode

  • mono-tools (new package, 1.0) - miscellaneous mono-related tools

  • monodevelop (0.7-21 to 0.7-22) - .Net IDE

    updated to a 0.7 SVN snapshot, some dependency updates, and environment cleanups

  • monodoc (1.0.6-1 to 1.0.7-1) - documentation tools and browser

    updated to 1.0.7, environment cleanups

  • mono-xsp (1.0.9-1 to 1.0.9-2) - .Net-based web server

    environment cleanups

  • gtk-sharp (1.0.10-1 to 1.0.10-2) - .Net Gtk GUI interface (Gtk1)

    got rid of the auto* junk, environment cleanups

  • gtk-sharp2 (1.9.5-1 to 2.3.90-1) - .Net Gtk GUI interface (Gtk2)

    updated to 2.3.90, dep cleanups, environment cleanups, removed unnecessary patches

  • gecko-sharp (2.0-1 to 2.0-2) - .Net interface to the Mozilla gecko HTML engine

    minor dep changes, environment cleanups

  • gtksourceview-sharp (2.0-1 to 2.0-2) - .Net interface to the Gtk source viewing widget

    now depends on gtksourceview 1.2, environment cleanups

  • libgdiplus (1.1.7-1, 1.1.8-2) - .Net System.Drawing implementation

    updated to 1.1.8

All packages were updated to depend on mono 1.1.8.3 since it's difficult to go back and test upgrades when everything was done en-masse.

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That’s *Mr.* Whacko Elitist to you!

You know, sometimes I just don't understand people. One of the other core Fink administrators got this e-mail a month or so back:

On Jun 15, 2005, at 6:06 PM, Dave Vasilevsky wrote:
[misc fixes]
Tell me how it goes!
On Jun 15, 2005, at 2:47 AM, moldy icon wrote:
it built and installed fine. Thank You very much.
maybe this is some kind of general fink problem
rather than anything to do with your package specifically
because my fink is offering me that same 0.0.11-11 version
of all the ggz packages... using FinkCommander.
it can't be affecting just me, can it?
I've done scanpackages, cleanup, and index several times.
I wonder what else is not being shown?
here's another unrelated question: why do the fink people burden us by forcing
us to build almost every unstable (and stable) package from scratch? The i386
people using linux never have to build unstable packages. They never have to
build anything... there's ALWAYS a binary of everything for them! Every fink
package maintainer has created a binary... just to test their package. Why force
us to build it? We don't have much diversity in the Mac OS X world... fink could
easily separate G3 G4 G5 the same way it identifies darwin/x86. I think the fink
bigwigs (especially "mister whacko elitist" ranger rick) are deliberately
punishing us. Imagine the incredible CPU cycles they're costing the Mac OS X
community making us build packages for which they could easily provide binary
debs. What's your theory? For example, did they tell you NOT to give us a
binary? Are you blocked from this somehow? I'm just wondering.
I think I'll post this question to the group. Wanna bet they avoid the question
and pretend this issue isn't an incredibly obvious deliberately-created
annoyance we're not allowed to discuss?
moldy icon

Any of you who know me know that I do my damnedest to help people and to not be "elitist" (although I can be a whacko sometimes <grin>).

Every fink package maintainer has created a binary... just to test their package. Why force us to build it?

Because while we have a huge user base, our maintainership is a tiny fraction of the size of other linux distros, we just plain don't have the resources to make it happen. We don't have a *secure* place to build binaries. Even if we did, if I built binaries on my development box, they'd link against stuff that's not even released yet, and so would be useless to you, the user.

It's not that we haven't thought of this stuff. We would love for there to be an unstable binary dist, but no one has the time or resources to make it happen (yet). I know there's been work to do so, but it's slow going.

The most frustrating thing in open-source is that while a ton of work goes into making things happen, there are a lot of people who only care about what they want out of it, without giving any regard to the people that made it happen. They are totally ungrateful for the time that has been donated towards making useful things for other people. It's seeing letters like this that make me completely sympathize with people who say "screw it!" and just give up.

I'm not going to give up just yet, though. There are plenty of people who do appreciate the work that goes into making any open-source project happen, and they're the ones who make it worthwhile.

So if you made it all the way to the end of this rant, please, think about the open-source software you use right at this moment, and send an e-mail to those responsible for it, telling them how much you appreciate it. I assure you, it'll do more than just make their day.

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fat binaries

<RangerRick> vasi: but all our stuff isn't built around all the extra junk to do fat binaries
<drm> "universal" sounds so much nicer than "fat"
<drm> "oh, have you noticed how universal aunt martha is getting lately?"

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KDE 3.4.1 in progress

Yes, yes, I know I keep saying I'm going to move KDE to stable. I'm in the process of getting KDE 3.4.1 built and released, and we'll see about it then.
Even if it doesn't make the bindist, I will build binaries so they will be available post-bindist, so hopefully things will be available soon.

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