Re: NSXML* classes changed to use libxml2 directly... Should we merge this into the trunk?

[Riccardo Mottola]

Hi,

On 01/25/2012 11:11 AM, Gregory Casamento wrote:
> Any time we allow a user to build without a given dependency they are 
> getting a sub standard experience with GNUstep.   I do consider nib 
> reading to be a critical feature of GNUstep, and I think it's foolish 
> to allow users to build without features like this.
I do not consider it at all critical. "Gui" itself is not even critical 
for a server user and NIB loading is not critical for gui even. It is a 
nice feature, a feature people use.

> It hurts us to have so many optional libraries.   Since most potential 
> users may just be trying us out, when they are able to build without 
> XML support or without Unicode support without various other things, 
> thy get a bad impression of GNUstep because we've allowed them to get 
> a bad experience with it.
It does absolutely not hurt us, it is an advantage!
Perhaps you miss the fact that people use GNUstep in many different 
ways? People want to embed it, people want to use it for a certain 
specific task only?
Some people may want to use just Foundation and don't even care about 
nib loading. Why force them?

it is one of the reasons why we loose many users and developers, we 
force everything to be a big tank even if it is not necessary.

We warn pretty well about libxml2 missing, but we can build without it. 
And currently everything standard even works quite well without it. For 
the standard user on the standard linux machine, libxml2 will be just 
there,put by the packager of the gnustep packager or just be there 
because it is common and it will be picked up by configure. Other users 
shall know better and why do you want to rob them of freedom?

Riccardo