Re: [Plplot-devel] CBS testing on Fedora

[Geoffrey F. <fu...@li...>]

Alan W. Irwin writes:
 > Geoffrey, your assumption is incorrect. As I have made clear from the
 > first (and also in a recent post to this list), autotools will be
 > deprecated (since nobody has stepped forward to support it any more) but
 > available (including configure and plplot_libtool) in the tarball to ease
 > the transition to our CBS.
 > 
 > That said, since you and Maurice appear to be PLplot developers who intend
 > to continue to use autotools for a while, 

I did not (mean to?) say anything like that.  What I said was, to reduce the
barrier to adoption, the CBS cutover should include a "configure" script
which takes the same options as the old one, but which runs cmake as it's
final act.  And a functional plplot-config.

 > I am going to rely on you to test
 > our development releases to make sure that no autotools-related problems
 > inadvertently creep in.

I don't intendt to maintain the autotools system personally.  You may
remember, that a condition for me to agree for PLplot to convert to autotools
in the first place, was that someone else would have to support it.  I have
no personal issues with its deprecation, and am looking forward to a
faster-building and less complicated future with cmake.

That is no reason to torpedo users' infrastructure for incorporating PLplot
into their host code.

 > * The transition from our ABS to our CBS is actually not that difficult. I
 > would be extremely surprised if it took a moderately experienced PLplot
 > developer (i.e., one who has used our downloads before) more than a day
 > (assuming they follow the steps what we suggest in the PLplot wiki).  Those
 > with more experience with PLplot should take substantially less than a day.

A ****day****!  GASP!  Oh my gosh.  Then forget the installed base.

Deprecation of ABS and cutover to CBS should include a "5 minute plan" for
adoption of the new release.

No PLplot release in history has carried more than about a 5 minute adoption
hit.  Even the cutover to autotools met that criteria.