On Thu, Oct 16, 2014 at 02:48:36PM +0200, Krzysztof Kosiński wrote:
2014-10-16 8:11 GMT+02:00 Bryce Harrington <bryce@...961...>:
So, I think a lot more flexibility is placed in the user's hands if we *don't* force the dependency version. Downscaling is an important feature but one that perhaps not everyone requires.
This 'flexibility' only allows the user to obtain a version of Inkscape which has a very high severity bug, and moreover one which is only apparent after you did all the work and are stuck with a completely useless render. It makes working with photos impossible.
If we want to make a version of Inkscape 0.91 that works with Cairo < 1.14, then we should simply disable the display of raster images (e.g. replace every image with a placeholder that says "you version of Cairo is too old, please upgrade", like we do for missing images).
I'd be fine with that, if you think that would make for a fair compromise.
I understand where you're coming from, that you want to ensure users don't have an embarrassingly poor experience with this new Inkscape release. A lot of work has gone into it and you want to make sure it's seen in its best light. I feel the same way.
I also want to make sure users have a good experience just being able to get the dang thing installed, and I know many will give up at the first sign of trouble. I want as many people as possible to have an Inkscape experience, even if it's got a known issue.
Consider that at least in this case, *no code changes* are needed to continue to work with the old cairo library.
By not setting cairo 1.14.0 as a hard dependency, we're leaving the choice to the affected users. These are Linux users, and I think they won't be at all surprised to hear that upgrading some lower level bit is needed for getting a better experience. We can totally message the need to upgrade Cairo in our announcements and on the downloads page, without making it a hard requirement in code. I think they'll appreciate not being forced to do this immediately, and be able to safely kick the tires on Inkscape first, and have the flexibility of upgrading cairo if they really want it.
Trust me, I definitely have a direct interest in getting as many people upgraded to the latest cairo as possible. But I think we're in a situation where we can get most of the gain but allow users to avoid most of the pain if we leave it to the user.
Bryce