SDL in the base system?

Plarde

Not too sure where to ask that, feel free to redirect me!

I'm currently working on getting better support between SDL and Ubuntu Touch. I've written code for SDL to add support for more features, and I'm working on a Clickable template to that effect. I hope with this to give developers an easier time porting SDL apps (including games ) to Ubuntu Touch, and perhaps to give another way of writing Ubuntu Touch apps

After some reflection and discussion with other developers, I believe that it would be beneficial to ship SDL with the base system, if that would be reasonable.

It would avoid packing one copy of SDL with each app that uses it, and instead have one single copy of SDL on the system. SDL takes about 3-4Mb of space; the satellite libraries (there are 4) takes a few 100's of kbs each.
It would make it easier for device maintainers to apply device-specific fixes to SDL and other kinds of tweaks when necessary.
It would simplify the build process for SDL apps that expect SDL to be installed on the system. (CMake's "find_package(...)")
It would allow the base system to ship SDL updates without app developers needing to update their apps, leading to better global support of SDL apps, especially when an app maintainer becomes inactive Essentially, it would "patch" apps without developers needing to do anything. And in case a device developer ships an outdated SDL, nothing prevents the app from shipping a newer copy of SDL.

I'm not sure what are all the variables to consider when making such a decision, but I suppose that I won't know unless I start the conversation!

AppLee

Hi @Plarde

Thanks for your contribution.
And you're right, it's important to discuss such matter.

I don't know how involved you already are in the system development.
I'll make the assumption that you're more an app developer from the argument you made.

So I don't want to go too deep as this is a topic that I don't master.
One argument that can be made against it is that it will make the system image grow even larger when it's already too large for some devices.
So the current situation is that such library/framework have to be packaged within the click.
I guess the clickable template with already included SDL is a very good idea and should help developers wishing to use SDL tremendously as not many people are familiar with clicks and it can be cumbersome to build a simple app...

I'll let other people prove me wrong or go deeper in the explanations.

Kindly yours.