why internal.h file not included in pidgin-devel package

[Richard Laager]

On Sun, 2008-09-21 at 15:57 -0700, Jeff Connelly wrote:
> On Sun, Sep 21, 2008 at 8:41 AM, Felipe Contreras
> <felipe.contreras at gmail.com> wrote:
> > 2008/9/21 John Bailey <rekkanoryo at rekkanoryo.org>:
> >> If you need internal.h, I'd say it's fairly obvious that you're doing something
> >> wrong.  The Facebook Chat, Napster, SNPP, and NateOn prpls, at least, don't need
> >> internal.h.  If these four prpls can manage, so can yours.
> >
> > So that means these "official" prpls are doing something wrong?
> > qq, msn, irc, novell, sametime, yahoo, null, silc, jabber, oscar,
> > myspace, zephyr, toc, bonjour, gg, simple.
>
> Interesting that nullprpl includes internal.h. The MySpaceIM prpl was
> based on nullprpl so it also includes internal.h.

Since people clearly still aren't getting it...

The "internal.h" header is for use by things that are internal, a.k.a.
*in-tree*.

If you actually look at the header file, you'll see it:
     1. includes config.h
     2. provides the gettext macros
     3. includes some other headers
     4. provides glib compatibility functions
     5. provides definitions for some internal functions that exist in
        separate .c files than they're called from

Of those functions, 1 & 2 would be handled separately by any out-of-tree
plugin, 3 is just for our convenience and isn't really that relevant if
you're writing a simple plugin, 4 should/can/will die once we raise our
glib requirements (which plugins wouldn't have to adhere to anyway), and
5 is, by definition, an internal-only thing.

If you're doing something in-tree, include internal.h. If you're doing
something out-of-tree, don't include it.

If the lack of internal.h is causing you a problem in your out-of-tree
plugin, please tell us what specifically, so we can move things to the
public header files as necessary or help you find another appropriate
solution.

Richard
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 189 bytes
Desc: This is a digitally signed message part
URL: <http://pidgin.im/pipermail/devel/attachments/20080921/52f5e32b/attachment.sig>