Re(2): [as-devel] 1.8 release woes

Andrew Ferguson Andrew_Ferguson@walnut.prs.k12.nj.us
Mon, 31 Jan 2000 21:33:12 -0400 

ishamael@themes.org writes:
>i have come to agree, as it seems 1.8+ascp may not be as far off
>as many seem to think.

Well here is the official word on ASCP and the status update. ASCP has not
been under development for many, many moons. It does not understand
MyStyles, and it does not understand asetroot, and it does not understand
almost all of the new features in 1.7.x. 1.7.x has been under development
for over a year at this point. To come in and design a whole new parsing
engine that understands the fruits of 1.7.x is very hard work. aslibConfig
was composed of three *.c's when I started work on it. It is now composed
of eleven. aslibConfig is independent of all modules. Its job is to filter
the information received from the low level parser that has already been
implemented by Sasha. This filtered information can be hooked up to the AS
modules for their use. It can also be bound to GTK widgets, as is the case
with ASCP.
Now for the status update. aslibConfig is far from done, 60% of the files
have been implemented (Gnome, asetroot, animate, audio, base.*, clean,
ident, pager, scroll, winlist, and zharf), but since little testing has
been done, I believe aslibConfig is only half done. Especially since the
hardest files to parse are still not understood (autoexec*, database*,
feels, forms, looks (but MyStyles are understood already), and wharf*),
the ones with stars next to them are imperative before new work on ASCP
can begin. Once I believe aslibConfig is ready, I will begin work on
binding the GTK widgets in it to the output aslibConfig gives it. That
work will take maybe two weeks, at best. Most of the code in ASCP will
have to be ripped out and replaced. In light of the need for ASCP, I will
not work on making it pretty, only on making it usable for the new
features in 1.8. Once that solid foundation is built, I will begin work on
the ideas discussed today (feel, look, theme, etc. selection, mouse
pointer selection and so forth) IN THE 1.9.x TREE, not before, the changes
would be *way* too radical. Even now, Sasha is probably a bit annoyed at
me for slightly giving in to David's demands. But I see his point, and if
he really, truly, understands how much work is left (about three-quarters)
before ASCP is usable, and still comes to the same decision, I will do my
best to make it happen.

PS - I agree with David about the docs and default files not being up to
par, perhaps a theme could be voted on for use as the "default"?

____________________________________
Andrew Ferguson
http://owsla.cjb.net | andrew@owsla.cjb.net
Tintin Webring: http://owsla.cjb.net/tintin/ring/