Re: [Plplot-devel] Is Qt5 supported?

[Andrew R. <and...@us...>]

On Wed, Mar 12, 2014 at 11:10:07AM -0700, Alan Irwin wrote:
> On 2014-03-11 11:22-0700 Alan W. Irwin wrote:
> 
> > Therefore, my conclusion is we should wait for something like another
> > year before we attempt to make PLplot work with Qt5.  There
> > are several benefits to such a substantial delay.
> >
> > (1) A delay will allow us to bump our minimum CMake version (currently
> > 2.8.9) to 2.8.11 which is currently required to take advantage of the
> > latest CMake infrastructure support for finding Qt5 components.
> > Typically we wait to bump that minimum version until Debian stable
> > includes that minimum version of CMake as a signal that most modern
> > Linux distributions are likely to carry at least that minimum version
> > of CMake.  The release date of the next Debian stable version is still
> > TBA, but it should roughly be a year or so from now if the Debian
> > track record for the length of previous release cycles continues for
> > this Debian release cycle.
> >
> > (2) Assuming CMake-2.8.11 constitutes the last big change in
> > infrastructure support, a delay also allows the Qt5 part of the find
> > methods to completely settle down to take advantage of that new
> > infrastructure.
> >
> > (3) A delay allows the Qt5 software itself to settle down.  PLplot
> > triggered a number of bugs that existed for Qt4.x before Qt4.5 was
> > released, and the same type of bug issues are likely to occur for
> > early Qt5.x versions as well.
> >
> > (4) A delay gives me a chance to get access to a well-debugged version
> > of Qt5.x myself.  For example, I am likely to move to Debian testing
> > (which allows Qt5 to be installed) within the next year or else that
> > version will be released as the next Debian stable release. Such
> > access will allow me to implement (as de facto chief maintainer for
> > our build system) the build-system changes needed to allow users
> > access to Qt5.
> >
> 
> RM, despite all those caveats, I have changed my mind about delaying
> this since I have been recently most encouraged by the helpful
> comments on the CMake mailing list concerning finding Qt5.  So later
> today I will try to implement an experimental option for the PLplot
> build system so that it will be able to find Qt5.  Of course, it will
> all be blind development on my part since I don't currently have
> access to Qt5, but it turns out finding Qt5 is actually pretty simple
> so there is a reasonable chance this experimental option will work for you
> immediately or after one iteration when I deal with any build-system
> issues that you find with Qt5.
> 
> Once that build-system option works for you, it should allow you to
> see whether there are any API changes between Qt4 and Qt5 that you
> have to be concerned with.

Alan,

If you are able to implement this I'll try using my Debian unstable 
pbuilder environment. Should give fairly easy access to Qt5.

Andrew