[Gnash-dev] Re: Configure the browser plugin to not print messages to stdout/stderr?

[Petter Reinholdtsen]

[Rob Savoye]
>> Well, given that we lack the man-power to maintain our own set of
>> gnash packages (to ensure timely bug and security fixes for the
>> duration of the Debian Edu/Lenny lifetime), it is the best option.
> 
> At one point the Debian packages for Gnash were up to date, I don't
> know why they aren;'t now.

I suspect you are confused by the difference with the stable release
in debian (Lenny), and what is available in other versions of debian.
Gnash 0.8.6 is available in Debian, in the unstable distribution and
is also currently in the testing distribution which represent what
hopefully will be included in the next stable release (Squeeze).

The version in Lenny will probably not be changed, while important
bugs might be fixed using backported patches or home made bug fixes.

> I'd gladly work with whomever is or can be a package maintainer to
> get the current release of 0.8.6 into Lenny.

Not sure if that is possible.  But we could do this in Debian Edu,
which is based on Debian Lenny with a few updated packages to get very
important fixes in.  Are you interested in maintaining gnash in Debian
Edu/Lenny for a few years (until Debian Lenny no longer have security
support), fixing bugs and security issues?

>> The alternative is to drop Gnash completely from the default build and
>> ask schools to install the Adobe Flash packages if they need Flash.
> 
> I thought that's what you were already doing.

This is what we did for Debian Edu/Etch, as gnash was not really fit
for general use.  Currently we are working on the Debian Edu/Lenny
release, and here we have Gnash 0.8.4 which seem to be working for
several sites, and thus might be better than providing no Flash
implementation in the default installation and only document how
schools can install Adobe Flash.

>> Several of our test sites as listed on <URL:
>> http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/FlashInDebianEdu > do not work as
>> they should with gnash, and until they do it is hard for schools to
> 
> I tried a handful of those links at random with Gnash trunk, and
> they appear to mostly all work. Maybe I'm missing something.

Very good to hear.

The problematic sites I have seen and tend to visit to check the
curren status is <URL: http://www.steinalder.no/flashsite.htm >, where
Gnash earlier failed to wrap the text, leading to only the first words
of the history from the stone age to show up in the browser and
<URL: http://met.hia.no/ > which only report an error instead of
showing the weather status, and finally <URL: http://www.vg.no/ >
which have an insane amount of flash ads which really should not bog
the machine down as much as it does.

I have not had time to test the current builds recently, and hope
these sites now are working. :)

> Basing what works or not on an ancient, seriously out of date
> release doesn't accomplish anything.

Absolutely. :)

> Well, we're seriously under-resourced these days, down to a small
> handful of developers hacking part-time, and a mostly broken build
> farm.  :-( Everbody wants Gnash to be completely compatible, but
> almost nobody seems to want to help us get there...

Yeah, I know. :/

Happy hacking,
-- 
Petter Reinholdtsen