<div dir="ltr">If we end up supporting 3.4.2, then can I suggest that we specify a <i>recommended</i> install of 3.5.1. At the moment the install docs are very much erring on the side of <i>older-if-possible</i> instead of <i>newer-if-possible</i>.<div>
<br></div><div>Cheers,</div><div><br></div><div>Douglas</div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On 15 April 2014 22:49, Roger Leigh <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:r.leigh@dundee.ac.uk" target="_blank">r.leigh@dundee.ac.uk</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">Dear all,<br>
<br>
I'd like to review the ZeroC Ice versions which the project currently<br>
supports, so that we can make an informed decision about what we are<br>
willing to support for the upcoming 5.1 (and later) releases.<br>
<br>
The first part of the email is a summary of which OS releases support<br>
which versions of Ice. The second is a proposal for what we could do<br>
based upon this information.<br>
<br>
<br>
Available Ice releases<br>
----------------------<br>
<br>
Version Release date Status upstream<br>
--------- ------------ ------------------------<br>
Ice 3.3.1 23 Mar 2009 Unsupported and obsolete<br>
Ice 3.4.2 16 Jun 2011 Unsupported and obsolete<br>
Ice 3.5.1 04 Oct 2013 Supported and current<br>
<br>
<br>
Windows<br>
-------<br>
<br>
No Ice provided; use ZeroC .msi installer<br>
<br>
<br>
MacOSX<br>
------<br>
<br>
No Ice provided. ZeroC installer available (but not compatible with<br>
all MacOS X versions). Or use:<br>
<br>
System Ice version<br>
-------- ------------------------<br>
homebrew 3.5.1<br>
macports 3.4.2 (with 3.3.1 extra)<br>
fink N/A<br>
<br>
Linux<br>
-----<br>
<br>
RHEL:<br>
N/A (use ZeroC RPMs)<br>
<br>
SLES:<br>
N/A (use ZeroC RPMs)<br>
<br>
Debian:<br>
<br>
Release Ice version<br>
------------------------- -----------<br>
squeeze (6.0, oldstable) 3.3.1<br>
wheezy (7.0, stable) 3.4.2<br>
jessie (8.0?, testing) 3.5.1<br>
sid (unstable) 3.5.1<br>
<br>
Ubuntu:<br>
<br>
Release Ice version<br>
------------------- -----------<br>
precise (12.04 LTS) 3.4.2<br>
saucy (13.10) 3.4.2<br>
trusty (14.04 LTS) 3.5.1<br>
<br>
Fedora:<br>
<br>
Release Ice version<br>
------- -----------<br>
F19 3.5.1<br>
F20 3.5.1<br>
<br>
<br>
FreeBSD<br>
-------<br>
<br>
Ports tree provides Ice 3.5.1.<br>
<br>
<br>
Summary<br>
-------<br>
<br>
- Current development versions of all Linux distributions support Ice<br>
3.5.1. All upcoming releases will be providing 3.5.1 (or 3.6 as and<br>
when that arrives).<br>
- Some stable releases support 3.5.1 but most are using 3.4.2.<br>
- Nothing provides 3.3.1 except for Debian oldstable; support for this<br>
will continue for a time yet (it's planned to make this an "LTS"<br>
release).<br>
<br>
I'm not aware of any system we currently support which can *not* be<br>
upgraded to 3.4.2 or 3.5.1. Windows users can use the ZeroC<br>
installer. Mac users can use the installer if they want to risk the<br>
ZeroC package actually working, or they can use homebrew. Linux users<br>
can use the provided RPMs, or Debian packages. Or they can build from<br>
source. Debian oldstable users could rebuild or install the 3.5.1<br>
packages assuming anyone is actually using this obsolete stable<br>
release.<br>
<br>
I'm currently working on rebuilding the ZeroC Ice 3.5.1 release on<br>
Windows against Python 2.7, which would allow us to support 3.5.1<br>
across the board on all platforms.<br>
<br>
<br>
Suggested actions<br>
-----------------<br>
<br>
It's quite clear that in all distributions, Ice 3.3.1 has been long<br>
superseded by 3.4.2 and increasingly 3.5.1. Removal of support for Ice<br>
3.3.1 is possible at this time, and I'd recommend doing so.<br>
<br>
While Ice 3.5.1 is current and supported, 3.4.2 is in the stable and LTS<br>
releases of Debian and Ubuntu, respectively, and will be supported by<br>
both for several years. Continuing to support these would be useful.<br>
However, given that these are the only two which provide it, we could<br>
*if we *really* wanted to*, go all the way to 3.5.1 and require the<br>
installation of a backported version; I can easily push it into Debian<br>
backports and provide a PPA. This would give us a baseline of 3.5.1 for<br>
all platforms. Maybe not 5.1 material, but something to consider for<br>
5.2/6.0?<br>
<br>
One point to note is that Ice 3.4.2 is /de facto/ broken on most current<br>
systems if you're wanting to use OmeroCpp: it won't compile with the<br>
current (and not-so-current) GCC /or/ clang++ compilers since the<br>
headers are buggy, so you're out of luck unless you use 3.5.1 on these<br>
systems. From this point of view, the decision is already taken out of<br>
our hands--3.4.2 isn't even buildable on current platforms. But it will<br>
continue to work on older systems.<br>
<br>
<br>
tl;dr<br>
-----<br>
<br>
- Suggest making 3.4.2 the minimum required Ice version and dropping<br>
3.3.1 support in our docs and CI infrastructure for 5.1<br>
- Alternatively, if we want to push this more aggressively, make 3.5.1<br>
the minimum<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
Any comments? Are there any systems I've missed which can't be upgraded<br>
from 3.3.1? Or anything else I've omitted which is relevant?<br>
<br>
<br>
Regards,<br>
Roger<br>
<br>
--<br>
Dr Roger Leigh -- Open Microscopy Environment<br>
Wellcome Trust Centre for Gene Regulation and Expression,<br>
College of Life Sciences, University of Dundee, Dow Street,<br>
Dundee DD1 5EH Scotland UK Tel: (01382) 386364<br>
<br>
The University of Dundee is a registered Scottish Charity, No: SC015096<br>
______________________________<u></u>_________________<br>
ome-devel mailing list<br>
<a href="mailto:ome-devel@lists.openmicroscopy.org.uk" target="_blank">ome-devel@lists.<u></u>openmicroscopy.org.uk</a><br>
<a href="http://lists.openmicroscopy.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/ome-devel" target="_blank">http://lists.openmicroscopy.<u></u>org.uk/mailman/listinfo/ome-<u></u>devel</a><br>
</blockquote></div><br></div>