Greg Morris wrote:
It is my opinion that on Win32 that we only build with GTK2 and the
modern installer.
As the modern UI installer (V2.0) is still marked as beta
(although until now it's matured and they reached Release Candidate 3
already),
I'm unsure if we might wait on the final release (promised for next
weeks) until switching to the modern UI..
Since I have been building with this and distributing
it to my users, they would revolt if I sent them the old interface. In
most cases when a new update is released from the Ethereal website, I
will get several requests the next day for a new Win32 build with all
the new features. This would cleanup the make files quite a bit. I
understand that on other platforms this might not be an option but for
Windows users it is almost a must.
Although there are still some left open points (bugs) on the GTK2
version, I tend to agree with you.
I build with all of the options and since the last CVS I performed on
1-26-04, all I can say is wow. The new features are excellent and under
GTK2 they just have the right look and feel for Windows. Especially now
that most of my users are getting exposure to Linux and Ximian it just
feels right.
I'm doing a lot of work on this topic :-), as I got a lot of responses
from the users I work with,
that the former UI was a bit crude. As it might not be perfect, I think
it's a lot better right now,
but still some work to do.
But the make files are incredibly a problem for GTK2 builds. Every
time, I must hack around to get everything to work. This means fixing
the config.nmake, the Ethereal.nsi, and some of the associated plugin
makefiles. I have assumed that I was doing something wrong in my build
environment so I have bothered the mailing list with these issues.
Probably just an environment variable or something I don't have
configured correctly.
I tried to fix this issue recently, but I would still see the whole GTK2
version as experimental,
at least the current generation process (makefiles, documentation, ...)
In any case, on Win32 with GTK2 performance is fine. Especially since
the updates made by Guy and a number of other contributors. The GUI is
usable and much more user friendly. I am really happy with the progress
made in the GUI over the last year. My internal battle is with users
that are tied to the old NAI Sniffer product. I have won over many users
but still have a few to go. The GUI changes are a positive move in the
right direction.
I hope so :-)
With the latest GTK2 releases and the changes in the Ethereal code,
performance is becoming better and better
compared to the former versions. So I tend to agree with your opinion,
that the Ethereal "mainline" could be switched
to GTK2 as performance is no problem to change to it right now.
You may not agree with my opinion but don't ask me. Put up a build on
the Ethereal site of each and let the users decide.
I would like to clean up the installer things for a parallel
installation of both version or maybe even put them in different
directories.
I will send an additional mail with some comparisons of the alternatives
we could do for the installer.
Don't get me wrong, I agree with your comments. I just don't want to
switch to the GTK2 version until we have a clean
generation process, a clean installation process which won't be broken
when GTK1 and 2 are installed in parallel
and we have some (rudimentary) documentation for all of this.
Regards, ULFL
