Re: [Freeciv-Dev] Yet another Gtk+ Server patch

[jpranevich@xxxxxxxxx]

Hello,

I happen to agree with everything that you say, so I'm going to clarify my
position with you a bit.

I feel, as some others may, that there are certain things that you can do with a
graphical client that you can't do with a text one and vice-versa. It's all a
matter of how data is presented. Obviously, the text server currently does its
job rather well and I don't want to argue that, however there are additional
points of view and I feel that as what I am working on becomes more robust, I
hope that will become more clear. Of course, it is your option whether or not to
include my code. To be honest, I hope that you do as it includes some change
which I feel would be helpful to freeciv on a whole, but that is a matter which
is not terribly objective.

That being said however, I should mention to you that the latest version of my
patch includes full text-mode support once again, and I'm nearly positive that I
have worked out the bugs. I will make a the configuration of the gtk server a
configure time option as you suggest, currently it is enabled if Gtk is found.
(Which is how I thought the Gtk client worked.)

I do not wish to sound impatient, that is not my feeling at all. If you would
prefer that the code be more stable before it be integrated, that's fine. I will
do everything I can to make it as suitable for inclusion as possible. At that
time, we will determine whether it is truly suitable and work out an integration
plan.

Joe








David Pfitzner <dwp@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> on 07/18/99 10:39:50 PM
                                                                                
                                                                                
                                                                                


                                                              
                                                              
                                                              
 To:      Joe Pranevich/Lycos@Lycos                           
                                                              
 cc:      freeciv-dev@xxxxxxxxxxx                             
                                                              
                                                              
                                                              
 Subject: Re: [Freeciv-Dev] Yet another Gtk+ Server patch     
                                                              








Vasco Alexandre Da Silva Costa wrote:

> You know the problem probably is that the server is the most portable part
> of FreeCiv and the maintainers don't wan't anything that reduces portability.
> If you want your server frontent to be acepted more easily try making it a
> separate program that parses the command line server's output.

This is a factor; I would prefer that approach.  A probably
more pressing factor at the moment is that there are lots of
other interesting freeciv things happening now, all vying for
attention.  And this combines with the first factor...

Also, I would note that in the past large and/or structural
changes have not been integrated into freeciv cvs rapidly.
This need not stay the case, and I'd like to do things somewhat
faster, but still... (and combined with the above factors.)
Eg, the Gtk+ client took a long time (maybe too long) before
it was integrated, despite (I think) having broad support.

Another thing to consider is that normally code has not been
put into freeciv cvs until it substantially works.  That is,
code which might be characterised as "beta" or better, rather
than code which might be characterised as "alpha".  I had a
quite look at the gtk-server (a4) and I'm not sure how rapidly
it is progressing, but it looked like it needs a bit of work
to be really usable.  Plus you need a configure option to
specify the text server, and the text server needs to work with
all it current capability! :-)

All this is not to say that you shouldn't be posting early
versions and updates as you've done, just that it may not be
integrated into cvs as quickly as you might like.

Regards,
-- David