Re: To port or not to port?

[Andreas Pakulat <apaku@xxxxxx>]

On 19.01.08 14:01:38, Robert Hogan wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I maintain two minor KDE-3.5 based apps: KlamAV and TorK.
> 
> KlamAV is firmly in bare maintenance mode. TorK is soon heading that way. (I 
> want to spend my spare time coding new stuff.)
> 
> Am I right in thinking I don't *need* to port either app to KDE4; that both 
> will, all things being equal, continue to run just fine on most distros, even 
> when they migrate to KDE4? This is based on the assumption that most or all 
> distros are going to maintan a 3.5 compatibility layer, um, of some sort.

Certainly for quite some time, but also certainly not forever. Hopefully
in 2 or 3 years there are no KDE3 apps around anymore (in a new distro
install), except in setups that are "always" 5 years behind state of the
art (i.e. government and really large company installations)

> So far as I can see most applications have used the porting process to 
> completely renovate themselves or have been ported because they are a core 
> part of KDE. The continued usability of the app doesn't appear to be a 
> motivation.
> 
> Am I right? Or do I need to gird my loins for a month or two of fiddle-compile 
> cycles?

Not necessarily right now, but if you want those apps to be easily
usable on a standard distro install in lets say 4 years you probably
want to port them at some point in time.

Andreas

-- 
Chicken Little was right.
 
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