Re: Versioning rust (firefox91 again)

[David Brownlee <abs%absd.org@localhost>]

On Sun, 16 Jul 2023 at 16:44, pin <voidpin%protonmail.com@localhost> wrote:
>
> ------- Original Message -------
> On Sunday, July 16th, 2023 at 4:16 PM, Greg Troxel <gdt%lexort.com@localhost> wrote:
>
> > pkgsrc does not have a policy that once software is EOL it is
> > automatically kicked out.
>
> I'm very well aware of this and in general I don't bother with it.
>
> > We have multiple versions of lots of things, and I think it's
> > remarkable that we haven't versioned rust yet, given what a compat
> > problem it is.
>
> I'm aware some people don't like Rust and the way it is structured.
> But, if there wasn't for Rust, we wouldn't have Spotify support on NetBSD.
> ncspot, spotify-player, spotify-qt, gospt and spotifyd, all rely on librespot.
>
> My laptop set-up is fully dependent on Rust packages.
> From my terminal emulator to my window manager, media player, etc ...
> So, you could say I'm at the other end of the spectrum and really like Rust.

My main concern about Rust is actually that we cannot get more Rust :)
- I'm a sucker for less mainstream architectures, not all of which are
supported by Rust, meaning pkgsrc has to manage "second-class"
platforms which use old pre-rust dependencies, or miss out on features
or entire packages. Having said that, Rust seems to be adding support
for more architectures over time, which is nice (unlike Java which
seems to be retrenching on just the mainstream).

I believe my goals largely overlap with yours - I want to improve the
availability and experience of rust packages in pkgsrc.

That's why I lead with "I thought I'd raise the possibility of keeping
an older version of rust...", rather than "We Must Do ...",
particularly as I'm conscious that *I* am unlikely to be paying
whatever extra maintenance cost would ensue.

In a side quest to eliminate any version of python other than 3.11
(and grudgingly 2.7) from my systems I now have firefox91 building
with 3.11, so it makes sense for me to start poking at it building
under more recent rust (which is an actual build breakage rather than
a contrived one), but if you have time I might try to pick your brains
off-list :)

Thanks

David