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

[Nyall Dawson]

On Thu, 7 Feb 2019 at 11:03, Nyall Dawson <nyall.dawson at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On Thu, 7 Feb 2019 at 00:03, Alexandre Neto <senhor.neto at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > Hi,
> >
> > I don't think that the supported platforms of a plugin should be a limitation for publishing it in the QGIS repository. If it's useful for a high number of users, why not?
> >
> > To me the only important thing to do, is to inform the users of any OS restriction, so that people don't waste time trying to make the plugin work in a non supported platform.
>
> Here's another consideration:
>
> What about plugins which target a particular OS, based on features
> which are SOLELY available to that operating system?
>
> I'm thinking something like a (theoretical) plugin which enables use
> of the Mac "touch bar" in QGIS. It's only EVER going to be of use
> under MacOS, yet I'm sure those users would very much value this
> plugin and not want to see it held back because Windows/Linux don't
> support touch bars...

Bah, one last thing I want to say here:

I think the true nature of open source is that if someone has
developed a plugin under a particular operating system, and hasn't had
the resources to test under other platforms, and then **I** come along
with my different operating system requirements and want to use this
plugin: the ultimate responsiblity lies WITH ME to get MY platform
supported by the plugin. NOT the original author. Sure, most plugin
authors will happily help and fix issues for you, but it's not THEIR
responsibility. Ask them nicely, bribe them with board games, PAY
them, or JFDI yourself. /end rant

Nyall


>
> Nyall
>
>
> >
> > I wonder how many of the published plugins have been tested to confirm that they work both on windows, Linux and Mac.
> >
> > Best regards,
> >
> > Alexandre Neto
> > A qua, 6/02/2019, 13:35, Tom Chadwin <tom.chadwin at nnpa.org.uk> escreveu:
> >>
> >> Matthias Kuhn wrote
> >> > If it's a single-purpose use-case specific plugin which is
> >> > intended to be run inside a specific organization / scenario, then I
> >> > don't see the benefit of investing a lot of effort into something that
> >> > will never be used.
> >>
> >> By "effort", do you mean the work to make it cross-platform? If so, yes, but
> >> in the case you describe, there is also no argument that the plugin should
> >> go in the official repo.
> >>
> >> This is a specific, but not uncommon, case, if I understand correctly. The
> >> QGIS plugin is a kind of middleware between QGIS and another tool which is
> >> not cross-platform. At work we have multiple users with another such plugin.
> >>
> >> In these cases, I guess it's a judgement call: are there enough potential
> >> users out there who would benefit from the extra visibility of having this
> >> plugin in the QGIS official repo? Or is the plugin so closely tied to the
> >> third-party application that it is more appropriate that that other app
> >> should host it, either on their own compatible plugin repo, or as a zip
> >> (bearing in mind that installing a plugin from a zip is massively easier
> >> than it used to be)?
> >>
> >> At the end of the day, all other factors being taken into account, excluding
> >> a plugin because it only works on Windows runs the risk of the project
> >> appearing to be unfriendly towards Windows. As a Windows user myself, I'm
> >> afraid that attitude is sometimes (often?) apparent among QGIS devs, as it
> >> obviously is in the broader open-source dev community.
> >>
> >> Cross-platform is a QGIS killer strength. But let's not make it a dogma.
> >>
> >> Thanks (and apologies if this went a tad OT)
> >>
> >> Tom
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> -----
> >> Buy Pie Spy: Adventures in British pastry 2010-11 on Amazon
> >> --
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> > --
> > Alexandre Neto
> > ---------------------
> > @AlexNetoGeo
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