Sparkle compatibility

[Indev Software]

In dealing with a couple of sparkle incompatibilities (specifically
Mail Act-On and LetterBox/WideMail) we need some collaboration on how
we are using sparkle so that our Plugins (and Mail) don't get borked
when someone updates their plugin and introducing an incompatibility.

This happened in a major way when I released Act-On as I was using the
latest beta builds of Sparkle and others were using earlier builds, or
sparkle+ or some sort of tailored build of Sparkle 1.x

While I worked around it, by swizzling some things and providing a
couple of dead methods in sparkle, it is hardly adequate.
(particularly with Letterbox where the nature of incompatibility meant
that sparkle is broken for both plugins.) (I can provide some details
of the workarounds fwiw)

I had an email exchange with Andy Matushak where he basically agreed,
multiple plugins using different versions of sparkle is a problem but
he had no solution nor expressed any interest in developing or
maintaining one.

In anycase, some longer term and more elegant solution is needed.
On the table:
1. just agree to use the latest sparkle and for everyone to put out a
release to do so. But I see some problems with this as it can become
incumbent on the developers to separately and perhaps in coordination
do with for future releases of sparkle.

2. Collaborate on an open source plugin that will provide sparkle
functionality to all mail plugins. This plugin would be named such
that it would load first (therefore winning the framework order load
race) This could have a few benefits:
* We need not worry about pushing out a release when Sparkle is
updated
* Everyones code is slimed down because there would be no need to
distribute the framework in the plugin.
* It could provide end user a common reference point for all update
preferences
* It could provide a further interface for enabling and disabling
plugins (ala mail plugin manager)
* Who knows -- we could at one point petition Apple to include it in
Mail proper and make the notion of plugins a little more sanctioned.
(maybe a little unrealistic -- but who knows)
* and it would give us a chance to work together and perhaps share
some insights in plugin development and war stories.

Comments?

[Christopher Atlan]

Am 12.12.2008 um 18:08 schrieb Indev Software:

> In anycase, some longer term and more elegant solution is needed.
> On the table:
> 1. just agree to use the latest sparkle and for everyone to put out a
> release to do so. But I see some problems with this as it can become
> incumbent on the developers to separately and perhaps in coordination
> do with for future releases of sparkle.

sparkle 1.5 looks damn stable to me, including all the thing that our
previous self hacked version had like plugin support and statistics.
As far as I know from talking with Andy Matushak there are no plan for
a new major release in the near future so I think we are on a secure
path with this.

Christopher

[Scott Morrison]

true

-- what is 1.5b6 looks to be very stable and it is reasonable to
anticipate only implementation changes below the "public" api level.
and so long as the plugins are using the same basic version (1.5.X)
messages to the public classes and methods should be stable for a
foreseeable future.

Still, that does not mean the idea of a sparkle for Mail Plugin is
without merit. Especially for maintaining compatibility with older
(perhaps less devoutly maintained) plugins that use earlier sparkle /
sparkle derivatives)
And for each plugin not "reinventing" or more specifically re-
incorporating and distributing the wheel so to speak.
________________________________
Scott Morrison <sm...@indev.ca>
Revolutionary plug-ins for OS X Mail.app
http://www.indev.ca/

[Scott Morrison]

Another item infavour of the updater
* It becomes easier for those of us who have multiple plugins to work
with sparkle. I started to add Sparkle to MailTags and for a number
of reasons realized that it was going to be uglier than I though
because of the variety of work arounds I did with Act-On to make sure
that multiple sparkles was a problem.

In anycase I will forge ahead with some development to get a working
project up and running. :)

________________________________
Scott Morrison <sm...@indev.ca>
Revolutionary plug-ins for OS X Mail.app
http://www.indev.ca/