Issue 1265 in dactyl: [PATCH] Remove maxVersion dependency

[dac...@googlecode.com]

Status: New
Owner: ----
Labels: Type-Defect Priority-Medium Project-Pentadactyl

New issue 1265 by DarkStar...@gmail.com: [PATCH] Remove maxVersion
dependency
https://code.google.com/p/dactyl/issues/detail?id=1265

The attached patch removes the maxVersion dependency from Pentadactyl.
Here is the commit message with an explanation:


It really doesn't make any sense to specify that Pentadactyl isn't
compatible with a future version of Firefox ever since Firefox changed
their versioning scheme as the major number no longer has any
relationship to ABI.

The situation at the moment leads to users either delaying security
updates to Firefox while they wait for a new release of Pentadactyl,
installing an unstable nightly release (which have been down since
October 2014), installing a repacked version from some random post on a
forum (which has trust/security implications), building it themselves
(if they have a dev environment set up to do so), or giving up and
uninstalling Pentadactyl out of frustration.

None of these are good options - let's set the maxVersion to * and be
done with it. If a given Pentadactyl release doesn't work with a future
version of Firefox for a legitimate reason then we can deal with it when
that happens.


Attachments:
0001-Remove-maxVersion-dependency.patch 1.6 KB

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[dac...@googlecode.com]

Comment #1 on issue 1265 by anhadjon...@gmail.com: [PATCH] Remove
maxVersion dependency
https://code.google.com/p/dactyl/issues/detail?id=1265

I second this your reasons, but I'm not entirely convinced setting to * is
the best idea. I think a better idea would be to setup the project to
auto-bump the version in install.rdf whenever there's a new version of
firefox and have it rebuild itself (I'm not sure code.google.com allows for
this though).

[dac...@googlecode.com]

Comment #2 on issue 1265 by DarkStar...@gmail.com: [PATCH] Remove
maxVersion dependency
https://code.google.com/p/dactyl/issues/detail?id=1265

That would be a reasonable option as well, but right now from the outside
it appears that this project has a poor track record for keeping their
stable release and nightly builds up to date. Plus bumping the number
implies that it has been tested, which would not be the case if it was an
automatic system bumping the number.

Setting the maxVersion to * at least means this issue will go away after
the next release, and while bugs may come about due to ABI breakages in
future versions of Firefox - we have that problem now, with or without this
change.

A "correct" fix would be the introduction of an ABI version number in
Firefox itself, since the current Firefox version scheme is really only for
show.

[dac...@googlecode.com]

Comment #3 on issue 1265 by anhadjon...@gmail.com: [PATCH] Remove
maxVersion dependency
https://code.google.com/p/dactyl/issues/detail?id=1265

Fair enough, we do have a problem with or without this change.
Although one could presumably setup automatic testing (assuming tests are
in place), and build accordingly.

This patch (if merged) will help me *not* download the source and compile
the source every time I update my Firefox.