Re: GUB lilypond build fails

[David Kastrup]

Carl Sorensen <address@hidden> writes:

> On 12/16/18, 6:42 PM, "lilypond-devel on behalf of Andrew Bernard"
> <address@hidden on behalf of
> address@hidden> wrote:
>
>     Hi All,
>     
>     I am new to lilypond dev. work. My intention may be naive, but I am 
> wanting
>     to do the work to uplift gub and lilypond to python 3. Am I premature, or
>     foolish, or misguided? I did have some encouraging email about this
>     previously, but I just wanted to check before I dive in and spend large
>     amounts of time, especially re GUB.
>
>
> I'm quite certain you're not premature.
>
> I don't know if you're foolish or misguided.
>
> GUB is a lot old, and a little bit (or maybe more) fragile.  It's
> primary developer (Jan) has decided he doesn't want to work more on
> it.  He'd rather pursue a different method of doing the
> cross-compilation.

Nix will not build Windows binaries, so it's not like his current
pursuits will lead to a replacement of what GUB does for us.

We don't really have any workable alternative on the horizon.  But I do
think we can retire at least the PPC platforms.  And I don't think the
FreeBSD compilations are used a lot either.

> I think that you need to investigate and make your own decision.
> Spend a bit of time trying to get to understand GUB.  Try making the
> changes you want to make.  See how it works.  See if you can wrap your
> arms around it.  If you can become an expert in GUB, you'll be an
> invaluable asset to the Lilypond development team.  Personally, I'd
> love to have you do that!

A Python 3 migration would be useful but of course requires some GUB
lifting.  It definitely would be a sizable amount of work.

-- 
David Kastrup