Re: [TCLCORE] Merging TkAqua Cocoa port into Tk HEAD

[<lm...@bi...>]

On Mon, May 18, 2009 at 12:16:31AM +0200, Daniel A. Steffen wrote:
> On Mon, May 18, 2009 at 00:08, Larry McVoy <lm...@bi...> wrote:
> > So we've got a lot of internal development on top of 8.6 already.
> > It's not really an option to move back to 8.5, then we chew off
> > solving all the problems that are only solved in 8.6.
> >
> > It's more likely that this would be the last straw for us and
> > we'd have to start migrating off of tcl.  I'm really not sure
> > but I know I'm going to be raked over the coals by my team and
> > customers when they find out about this.  From my point of view,
> > dropping support for a perfectly viable platform throws into
> > question the viability of the tk system as a toolkit.  It's a
> > big deal and if the core goes along with this I dunno what we'll
> > do, but it won't be much fun.
> >
> > I wonder what the technical issues are in supporting 10.4?
> 
> they may not be that large, I haven't looked into it frankly. Feel
> free to have someone at bitmover look into it, I can't justify
> spending time on it.

I can understand that, everyone is busy.  Unfortunately, I'm basically
the only person at BitMover that is in favor of using the tcl/tk system.
I've fought for years to stay on it for the cross platform cost savings
but it's not been easy.  We have daily arguments about whether something
else would be a better choice.

The reality is that if I were not the guy in charge we would have long
since moved off.  If I show up and tell the team that the tcl core team
has decided to drop support for a current major platform and our only
answer is to do the work ourselves, they'll crucify me.  I'll be faced
with a screaming pile of I-told-you-so's.

Not your problem, I'm just giving a glimpse into the hell that is my
management life.  For me, this decision has a real chance of killing
our use of tcl, killing the L project, and setting us back a couple
of years.  Lovely position to find oneself in but it is what it is.

> FWIW I'm also quite happy to continue with the status quo, i.e.
> maintain the cocoa port in the gihub fork and let the tk/macosx code
> in CVS bitrot away, I won't be doing any more work on it, I haven't
> touched it since last August as is (nor has anybody else).

Just for the record, I'm very grateful for your work, I should have 
started with that statement.  Showing up and raining on your parade
is the last thing I wanted to do.  And to put some teeth in that, if
you wanted to offer up a price tag for maintaining 10.4 support,
figure that out.  If it's something we can afford I'm happy to cough
up the money.

Regardless, this is great stuff, and I support it, I just wish it 
included 10.4.  Sorry to be such a downer.
-- 
---
Larry McVoy                lm at bitmover.com           http://www.bitkeeper.com