Re: Dependencies on the rust toolchain

[Hauke Fath <hauke%Espresso.Rhein-Neckar.DE@localhost>]

On Fri, 02 Jun 2023 09:10:26 -0400, Greg Troxel wrote:
>> I am inclined to make the libimagequant option for graphics/gd 
>> non-mandatory.
> 
> [...]
> 
> If you mean "I would like to change the default", then we'd have to talk
> about what upstream gd recommends, what is lost in functionality, and
> how to balance that with the concerns of those who decline to deal with
> rust.  Without having gone down that path, I really doubt that making it
> default off is reasonable.

Upstream defaults this dependency to off:

| Besides that, GD depends on some external libraries, which are all 
| optional and disabled by default:
| 
|     FreeType for rendering fonts
|     Fontconfig for configuring and customizing font access
|     libraqm for complex text layout
|     libimagequant for conversion of RGBA images to 8-bit 
|         indexed-color images
|         NOTE libimagequant is dual-licensed: GPLv3 and commercial 
license

-- doesn't sound like a core feature. Our graphics/gd is not built with 
support for libraqm, either.

I don't know if the license mismatch is relevant here - gd ships under 
a bsd-like license, while libimagequant is under gpl3.

>> And/or package libimagequant v2.
> 
> We have a tradition of packaging the last non-rust version, when
> somebody cares enough to do it.   See librsvg-c.   I like the "-c"
> suffix, as it makes it clearer why it is there.

I will add a libimagequant-c, thanks for the pointer.

> There is also support for picking the C versions when rust is not
> available.

I'll copy that. The *_TYPE variables are user settable individually, I 
take it?

> It seems like a reasonable extension to allow a user to set a variable
> which means "pretend rust is not available on my platform".

Indeed, that would offer a global knob.

Cheerio,
Hauke

-- 
Hauke Fath                        <hauke%Espresso.Rhein-Neckar.DE@localhost>
Linnéweg 7
64342 Seeheim-Jugenheim
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