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KevinH · 07-10-2016, 12:39 PM

The biggest problem is not the format to choose (although AppImage apps can get quite large - double the size of Windows and Mac versions in some cases, and the others are not really shipping - yet), it is the lack of developer time.

Since serious harm can be done by injecting unwanted code into released binaries, the members of the developer team must be trusted to not do those sorts of things. Other volunteers who provide patches and things via git will have their code reviewed before committing it to the tree and they do not release "official" binaries so the level of trust needed for helping out in that way is not as critical as it is for those who make official binary releases.

So Sigil would need a new "trusted" developer to step forward to volunteer to support this new binary, track down bugs, make release builds, etc. And it can take years to develop that shared trust.

I have known and worked together with DiapDealer for many years now on multiple projects and so we have developed trust in each other. I had worked previously on many different open source projects and was previously maintainer of the lingucomponent project at OpenOffice.org and still worked directly with John for almost a year before he decided to pass along the reins to us. Furthermore, I registered as an official Apple Developer and pay the fees so that I can sign my binaries helping users to know they are mine. If any problems were found with those, Apple can easily find me and revoke my registration which would prevent any binaries I made from installing and working on Mac platforms

eschwartz and the other official distribution maintainers have the trust of their linux distribution organization that help makes Linux work and their distribution signs their binaries for release (similar to what we do for the Mac ones) They track down and fix build issues and bug reports that are specific to their distribution.

So either some trusted organization volunteers (for free) to provide us an auto build system that includes one of those package systems and all of the cloud support behind it to keep it secure (highly unlikely since Sigil is so specialized)

... or ...

we need one new, dedicated, trusted developer to volunteer to support that platform/package, just as DiapDealer does now for Windows (and supporting building on Linux) and I do the same for the Mac platform (and I have a LinuxMint 18 set-up now for helping with Linux specific bugs).

So as soon as this Linux package system argument has died down and selected a clear "winner" and someone trusted comes forward to volunteer to help, we will add support for it. I just don't see that happening anytime soon.

Meanwhile the need for it gets less and less given the new rolling style Linux distributions like Arch and the excellent support provided by eschwartz and others.

Hope this makes things clearer.

KevinH

07-10-2016, 12:39 PM	#7
KevinH Sigil Developer Posts: 8,859 Karma: 6120478 Join Date: Nov 2009 Device: many	The biggest problem is not the format to choose (although AppImage apps can get quite large - double the size of Windows and Mac versions in some cases, and the others are not really shipping - yet), it is the lack of developer time. Since serious harm can be done by injecting unwanted code into released binaries, the members of the developer team must be trusted to not do those sorts of things. Other volunteers who provide patches and things via git will have their code reviewed before committing it to the tree and they do not release "official" binaries so the level of trust needed for helping out in that way is not as critical as it is for those who make official binary releases. So Sigil would need a new "trusted" developer to step forward to volunteer to support this new binary, track down bugs, make release builds, etc. And it can take years to develop that shared trust. I have known and worked together with DiapDealer for many years now on multiple projects and so we have developed trust in each other. I had worked previously on many different open source projects and was previously maintainer of the lingucomponent project at OpenOffice.org and still worked directly with John for almost a year before he decided to pass along the reins to us. Furthermore, I registered as an official Apple Developer and pay the fees so that I can sign my binaries helping users to know they are mine. If any problems were found with those, Apple can easily find me and revoke my registration which would prevent any binaries I made from installing and working on Mac platforms eschwartz and the other official distribution maintainers have the trust of their linux distribution organization that help makes Linux work and their distribution signs their binaries for release (similar to what we do for the Mac ones) They track down and fix build issues and bug reports that are specific to their distribution. So either some trusted organization volunteers (for free) to provide us an auto build system that includes one of those package systems and all of the cloud support behind it to keep it secure (highly unlikely since Sigil is so specialized) ... or ... we need one new, dedicated, trusted developer to volunteer to support that platform/package, just as DiapDealer does now for Windows (and supporting building on Linux) and I do the same for the Mac platform (and I have a LinuxMint 18 set-up now for helping with Linux specific bugs). So as soon as this Linux package system argument has died down and selected a clear "winner" and someone trusted comes forward to volunteer to help, we will add support for it. I just don't see that happening anytime soon. Meanwhile the need for it gets less and less given the new rolling style Linux distributions like Arch and the excellent support provided by eschwartz and others. Hope this makes things clearer. KevinH