[Qgis-developer] Qscintilla API files - use external?

[Larry Shaffer]

Hi William,

On Tue, Apr 2, 2013 at 3:06 PM, William Kyngesburye
<woklist at kyngchaos.com>wrote:

> I noticed that there are non-QGIS Qsci API files in the QGIS source.
>  Shouldn't these be copied at build time from the installed Qscintilla API
> files?  Especially PyQt and Qscintilla itself.  QGIS has PyQt 4.7.4,
> Qscintilla 2.4.5 and GDAL 1.9.1 API files, yet I have PyQt 4.10, Qscintilla
> 2.7.1 and GDAL 1.10 beta2 (though no API file for GDAL) installed.
>

The reasoning behind that is for having a baseline version for API files
for development, relative to the current user install base. In other words,
if on Mac the latest PyQt or Qscintilla API files were used, a PyQGIS
developer could use the console to craft a script or plugin (that they then
intend to release) and may be using APIs that are too new for users of a
different platform, e.g. RedHat. The RedHat user may be using Qt 4.6 and
the plugin/script may not work for them. Same concept goes for GDAL and
other bindings.

This brings up the question again of what the current base system
requirements for QGIS 2.0 should be. My feeling is that Qt should be at
minimum 4.6, though I think 4.7.x would be better. Qt 4.6 introduced built
in graphics drop shadows, for example. IMO, if a solid set of base
requirements can be established, even for common Python libs, then the
appropriate base version API files can be generated and ship with 2.0.

When we discussed this before, Radim made a good point that supporting
5-year-old installed software in the open source community is fairly
common, and often special releases are setup with that in mind, e.g. LTS
releases. This is much less common in the Mac and Windows user culture.

In the Python console's settings, Salvatore coded the ability for the user
to add custom API files. I haven't tested it recently, but the idea is that
a developer could load in what they want to match their target user systems
and project.

Regards,

Larry



> -----
> William Kyngesburye <kyngchaos*at*kyngchaos*dot*com>
> http://www.kyngchaos.com/
>
> First Pogril: Why is life like sticking your head in a bucket filled with
> hyena offal?
> Second Pogril: I don't know.  Why IS life like sticking your head in a
> bucket filled with hyena offal?
> First Pogril: I don't know either.  Wretched, isn't it?
>
> -HitchHiker's Guide to the Galaxy
>
>
>
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