[geos-devel] RFC6 - Drop GEOS C++ API at GEOS 3.8

[Kurt Schwehr]

-1 (non-PSC).  Please do not drop the C++ the C++ API.  Some folks (e.g. me
at Google) statically link GEOS and ABI compatibility is not an issue.
Every build is a complete system.  Working with C APIs is far harder.  We
end up having to wrap a C++ API back over C APIs.  But do note that I don't
use any of the provided build systems.  It's unclear what you mean in RFC6
by not providing the C++ headers.  I presume that you mean in the install
destination or do you just mean that packagers can drop the C++ header?

It's perfectly reasonable for packages to only depend on the C API and I
think that does make sense for PostGIS.

On Sun, Oct 1, 2017 at 7:49 PM, Regina Obe <lr at pcorp.us> wrote:

> Okay I have created an RFC6 to officially drop GEOS C++ starting at GEOS
> 3.8  (so as soon as we release GEOS 3.7 (which should be next month), and
> flip the switch, we drop the C++ headers as well so developers won't be
> tempted to use them.
>
> https://trac.osgeo.org/geos/wiki/RFC6
>
>
> As Bas said already it causes packagers headaches.  It causes PostGIS
> headaches because users can't easily migrate to newer versions of GEOS
> because the packages they rely on e.g osm2pgsql (which is going away
> because we broke ABI with C++ aPI between 3.5 and 3.6).
>
> If we can't support something, let's not provide it period.  It's
> disservice to everybody.
>
> I know Sandro you think making it noisy would solve the issue.  Trust me
> it won't.  There is so much noise with all dependencies people compile with
> that most developers are trained to ignore them.
> The proof to them is it compiles and passes their tests.  Unless of course
> you plan to introduce noise in production build, which makes GEOS useless
> anyway.
>
>
> It is my understanding that only osm2pgsql (which is dropping GEOS anyway)
> and osmium which has already dropped GEOS, were the only big projects using
> the C++ API.  Lets not leave it in as that will just leave the whole open
> for newer projects to start using it.
>
>
> As GEOS PSC member I vote +1 for dropping GEOS C++ API.
>
>
> Thanks,
> Regina
>
>
>
>
>
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