Let me start by saying I’m not a programmer.
I’ve been loyally tracking Ardour’s issue tracker for a long time now. You can really get an extra sense of appreciation towards the ardour team and bug submitters when you follow the issue tracker.
(Not even on commercial packages do you get this type of interaction towards bug tracking and resolving.)
It make’s me think about a saying I read on a yahoo answers about the difficulty of C++ programming.
I googled “Is C++ difficult”, and stubled on this saying below.
“Give a man a program and frustate him for a day.
Teach a man to program and frustate him for the rest of his life.”
Coming back to what I would like to discuss. Some of the issue tracker submissions relate to some bugs that only occur on certain Linux distributions. Not many but still.
Question is.
Does the amount of Linux distributions frustate Ardour’s Linux developing to a agree.
Is there a handfull of target distribution for Ardour the team would recommend.
This being said, there is development in the works to provide a single compiled version on multiple Linux platforms, but it has its own trade offs as well.
As a software developer, I currently spend most if not all of my time tracking or fixing issues to do with the multiplicity of different distributions and configurations possible within linux. I have created some audio plugins which people on this forum may or may not be familiar with at:
And currently, I am having to test compatibility with:
Ubuntu, Ubuntu Netbook Remix (10.04 - 10.10), Ubuntu Netbook Remix (Unity), Meego (1.0 and 1.1) Mandriva, together with (in different combinations) Compiz Window Manager, blackbox / fluxbox window managers (and more generic) KDE or GNOME desktops
All of this in 32Bit and 64Bit - together with (since my programs are plugins and not standalone apps) Ardour >= 2.8.3 Ardour 2.8.8 and Later, eventually Ardour3… and Qtractor, EnergyXT, Renoise etc
Once this appears to be working, I then have to test in different locales (since utf8 support in some window managers has created minor problems which are in the process of being fixed)
All of which leaves almost no time to write anything new. The flexibility of linux is its greatest strength but, for (comercial) developers can also be its greatest weakness.
The flexibility of linux is its greatest strength but, for (comercial) developers can also be its greatest weakness.
What linuxdsp said, times 10. And of course, every single distribution has its own entirely justifiable reason for existing, as well as for its own configuration choices. There’snothing really that wrong with any given distro - its the sheer number and diversity of them that causes issues.
