[ome-devel] Supported ZeroC Ice versions for 5.1 and later releases

[Douglas Russell]

If we end up supporting 3.4.2, then can I suggest that we specify a
*recommended* install of 3.5.1. At the moment the install docs are very
much erring on the side of *older-if-possible* instead of
*newer-if-possible*.

Cheers,

Douglas


On 15 April 2014 22:49, Roger Leigh <r.leigh at dundee.ac.uk> wrote:

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