[QGIS-Developer] Windows only version of a QGIS 2.18x plugin

[Nathan Woodrow]

QGIS is for the users in the end, if this opens a new world of users, and
note this is government funded, I don't think we should avoid allowing
these kinds of things in.  This isn't a core feature of QGIS and more of an
exception than a rule.  I don't see most plugins going this route but the
few that do because of X reasons they have no control over should still be
part of the community I think.

I really don't see the harm here as it's not something that most people
will know or care about in the end.  Getting plugins to work cross-platform
is a lot of work and I don't really like pushing people away because they
can't do it for whatever reason.  If this was going to be a core feature I
would be on your side for it but the plugins are for the users.

I would also note we have some features of QGIS that only work on some
platforms and not others and we are fine with that because it makes it
better for those users, so this is the same here IMO.  Pushing them out to
a self-hosted plugin repo just adds extra overhead and limits user base
and visibility of well-funded work that we should embrace.

- Nathan

On Wed, Feb 6, 2019 at 9:04 PM Paolo Cavallini <cavallini at faunalia.it>
wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> On 06/02/19 09:42, Richard Duivenvoorde wrote:
>
> > If you prefer to put it in QGIS repo: just add a big note in the
> > metadata.txt description that this plugin is only usable with vesper and
> > windows. And maybe do an OS check in the __init__ for illiterate users
> ;-)
>
> I respectfully disagree with that: at the very core of the QGIS project
> it stands the idea of letting everybody use the best possible GIS,
> without discrimination. This kind of approach would in fact favour
> Windows users. I have no issue if someone wants to create their own
> repo, as suggested by Richard, but the official one IMHO should remain
> platform-independent. I'm now dealing with CUDA, thanks Nyall for
> letting me know. Please let me know if you know of other plugins in the
> same situation.
> I would appreciate avoiding plugin approval until the discussion has
> come to a shared conclusion.
> Thanks.
>
> --
> Paolo Cavallini - www.faunalia.eu
> QGIS.ORG Chair:
> http://planet.qgis.org/planet/user/28/tag/qgis%20board/
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