Minimal gtk version seems to be random

[ilya-fedin]

Hello! I'm trying to update hime to version 0.9.11 in tdesktop, but the build fails due to GTK_VERSION_CHECK in hime-gtk-compatible.h. We're using CentOS 7 for builiding and it contains gtk2 2.24.31, gtk3 3.22.30, while hime requires 2.24.32, 3.24.20. Why exactly these versions were chosen? This looks like a random choice for me since you requiring patch versions rather than minor ones.

[xatier]

Hi @ilya-fedin,

I did some gtk clean up in commit f14c9af, gtk 3.24.20 was the latest version available at the time.

HIME project is not actively under maintained, I'm the only maintainer currently.
If you are looking for a more stable input method for serious use, I would recommend https://github.com/fcitx .

[ilya-fedin]

If you are looking for a more stable input method for serious use, I would recommend https://github.com/fcitx .

We include hime-qt plugin just to not to get new issues about asian languages input. Personally I don't understand why there is no some standardized API for all input engines (either dbus or with X protocol abstraction) to not to include Qt plugins for every input method.

I did some gtk clean up in commit f14c9af, gtk 3.24.20 was the latest version available at the time.

Can you decrease it to the really required version (you can try installing some old distros into VM and find on which there's no needed methods)?

[xatier]

Hi @ilya-fedin,

I would honestly say that hime is not a popular input method among asian users. There are many historical reasons behind the greater question "why there is no some standardized API for all input engines". ibus kind of aimed to be one though, but still there exists many other projects developed by different communities.

If recommend including other popular input methods such as ibus-chewing (ibus + libchewing) and Fcitx. If you do want to downgrade the gtk requirement versions, feel free to just patch hime-gtk-compatible.h locally.

[ilya-fedin]

feel free to just patch hime-gtk-compatible.h locally

We have hime as a git submodule :(
https://github.com/telegramdesktop/tdesktop/tree/dev/Telegram/ThirdParty

[xatier]

I see. Checking through some historical tickets on your side [1], my understanding to the issue is more like we need to update our build script to only build the qt module.

I would personally like to fix that, not sure when I'll have the bandwidth to work on that.

On the other hand, CentOS 7 seems to be very close to its EOL [2], as a side note.

[1] telegramdesktop/tdesktop#6886
[2] https://wiki.centos.org/About/Product

[ilya-fedin]

my understanding to the issue is more like we need to update our build script to only build the qt module

We build hime via our custom cmake rules: https://github.com/desktop-app/cmake_helpers/tree/master/external/hime_qt

Unfortunately, hime qt plugin uses hime-im-client that uses gtk.

[ilya-fedin]

On the other hand, CentOS 7 seems to be very close to its EOL [2], as a side note.

There are a lot of people who uses Telegram on old distros. We just migrated from building on Ubuntu 14.04 and minimal requirements of Ubuntu 12.04 (glibc 2.11) to building on CentOS 7 and minimal glibc version of 2.17. So CentOS 7 definitely will be used for a long time.

[xatier]

Understand.

What I can do here is to lower the gtk deps. to unblock Telegram for now.
While for the long term solution, it's really on the hime side to clean all these mess up.

[ilya-fedin]

My inner perfectionist doesn't understand why not to require the real minimal version, but thank you very much :)