Re: [linuxtools-dev] Re: Linux-only features

[John Arthorne <John_Arthorne@xxxxxxxxxx>]

On 04/13/2010 04:39 PM, Andrew Overholt wrote:
> My concern is user expectations.  If we just leave it in there
for all
> OSes, people will assume it's been well-tested on all OSes.  I'm
> inclined to restrict it to Linux-only for now and request testing
on
> other operating systems.  I'm willing to be swayed in opinion
if Jeff or
> someone else has strong feelings.

Just to chime in with an outside opinion, I think
it's better to err on the side of allowing these features to be installed
anywhere unless they really will only ever run on linux (i.e., non-optional
dependency on bundles with Linux-specific native code).  You should
document what platforms you officially support, but I think there is benefit
in allowing people to install the features on unsupported platforms. This
can only help to grow your user and potential contributor base. I know
with the Eclipse platform, there are people who run it on OSes we don't
officially support, and we get the occasional contribution back that helps
us run better on those unsupported platforms. They are even welcome to
enter bugs, but we'll give main priority to bugs reproducible on supported
platforms. User expectations has never been a big problem, since we can
always refer them to our plan, etc, that clearly list what is supported.
Anyway, I don't know the specific details about many of your tools, but
thought I'd offer my perspective.

John