[Scummvm-devel] Status of the Win32 Port/NSIS Installer

[Max Horn]

Hi there!

Am 05.05.2011 um 21:27 schrieb Matthew Hoops:

> Hi,
> 
> I was hoping that someone involved with the NSIS pull request
> discussion would have already addressed this issue on the mailing
> list, but alas, there has been none since last week. A week has passed
> since Littleboy submitted his NSIS pull request on Github and the
> following argument with our then-Win32 maintainer, yet nothing has
> been said since about it. I'm very disappointed, to say the least.

Yeah, me too. Welcome in the club (though it's not really a new feeling for me, I feel like that on avarage every couple of weeks with ScummVM :).

> 
> In addition, the prior discussion regarding the NSIS on -devel did not
> really show favor toward one installer script over another. LordHoto's
> final e-mail from April 30 even went unnoticed its seems.
> 
> Now that Kirben has regrettably left the project, who is maintaining
> the Win32 port? We have a release coming up soon and we have no one
> slated to build a Win32 binary. Or at least no one has publicly been
> named the new porter. Nor has Kirben been marked in the credits as
> 'retired'.

AFAIK,  right now, Kirben's status in the project  is a bit like Schrödinger's cat. Nobody has yet announced that Kirben left -- in particular, Kirben has not. I only know about his wish to leave because I was told by Eugene about it, who in turn apparently received an email from Kirben. Moreover, it seems that, Kirben asked Eugene to clean up after him, i.e. remove him from SF.net, github, etc., mark him retired in the credits.

But *I* deliberately stayed out of this particular bit, and will stay out of this. I have no direct knowledge, only indirect references, hints, allusions. I don't want to be involved in removing Kirben from the project, credits etc. (should that be the course of action taken). As this just might be later construed as me having removed him from the project, as opposed to him asking for it (he didn't ask *me* anyway, but Eugene), given that there are no public records whatsoever.

So, Eugene, Kirben, and the rest of the team will  have to take care of settling Kirben's status one way or the other. Once that is resolved, we can move on.

As for finding a new Win32 maintainer, if that is necessary, my hope is that it won't be too hard -- once we start searching, that is. Which, once more, we can only really do once official word is out that we need to.

So, once more, I for one am waiting for Eugene and/or Travis, and deliberately holding back otherwise.

> Perhaps no one cares enough?

I certainly do care a great deal, both about ScummVM in general, and about the Win32 port in particular.

But due to my role in the whole thing, and how some people perceived it, it seems appropriate that I hold back for now. But I'll be happy to help out with the Win32 port (maintainer searching, helping maintain it, even test it on my Win32 machine), once the whole Kirben issue has been resolved one way or another.


> Perhaps the real issue is that the
> ScummVM team once again has problems with communication?

That's always the problem, I think. But maybe not a surprise, given that here are 50 people, from different culturues, communicating over a media that filters out a lot from the communication, leading to misunderstandings all the time; add in that working on ScummVM is not the first priority for most (all?) of us, meaning that sometimes you wish there were replies soon, but you really have to wait weeks... it's sad, but it's also IMHO perfectly normal, and understandable. We can strive to improve this, but we'll always be far from perfect.


Bye,
Max