[sword-devel] Announcing Sword++

[Jaak Ristioja]

On 26.09.2016 10:56, Peter von Kaehne wrote:
> We are supporting 32 bit devices and operating systems for the foreseeable future.  Emails on sword-support confirm that.

I have no problem with Sword doing that. But you can't force Sword++ to
do that, unless of course you get involved and help out to maintain
support for such devices and environments. Currently Sword++ is
prioritizing Linux systems on x86_64 architecture, because that is the
only hardware/software environment the only developer (me) has
reasonable access to. Second, I am currently prioritizing refactoring
over portability to specific platforms because of limited time.
Foremost, I intend to write modular, highly portable C++, but not to do
all the porting right away. I don't expect x86_32 failures in the near
foreseeable future. Support for non-POSIX-like systems like Windows will
probably turn most acute, but I guess it will have to wait for someone
else to take the lead on that. C++ Filesystem TS and Networking TS might
help thou.

> I am arguing against careless breakage.

None of what is done in Sword++ will break Sword, only perhaps
illuminate some things which

> Bindings and utilities are an absolute necessity, 32 bit support may well be necessity for a good while longer and the keeping small of the list of compulsory dependencies has reasons too.

I prioritize working on the core library over all else. To function
efficiently at this stage, I'm currently dropping those from the Sword++
repository to keep it simple and slim. This will help me focus on what I
think is more important for Sword++ in this stage. I'm currently keeping
the utilities, but may move them to a separate git repository in the
future. Making a number of dependencies non-optional also serves the
same purpose of helping me to work effectively, given my resource
constraints, mostly in time. The build system and code logic for making
support of some of those dependencies optional was broken, so it was
easier for me to remove that cruft and move on.

As I stated in my original announcement: feel free to contribute, feel
free to merge code back to Sword. After all, it's open source. :)

Many blessings,
J