[cairo] gobject boxed types

[Damian Frank]

On Sun, Sep 14, 2008 at 11:49 PM, Behdad Esfahbod <behdad at behdad.org> wrote:
> Kai-Uwe Behrmann wrote:
>> Making each application, using Cairo, practical dependent to Glib, appears
>> not nice for non Gtk applications. A Cairo package would nearly always
>> depend on glib, which makes things like the before mentioned independence
>> and upgrading more complicated.
>
> I don't get the logic here at all.  If your distribution decides to build
> their cairo with glib, just let them deal with it.  It causes no problem for a
> cairo user.

Sorry for the massive quote.  I'd like to chime in here that adding a
glib compile dependency to Cairo will seriously complicate the lives
of people like me and my colleagues who are building cairo libs
ourselves on Windows, Mac, and Linux, and adding a glib compilation
dependency seriously complicates building on Windows and Mac.

I guess I'd be satisfied if the glib dependency were easily disabled
on the configure line on Mac and Linux, and off by default in
Makefile.win32.  To be honest, though, glib dependencies scare me.  I
like to know what my software is pulling in and using when I'm writing
the code, and I really like how contained cairo's dependencies are.
Adding even a soft glib dependency kind of threatens that beautiful
simplicity, since GNOME is such a hulking mass of interdependencies.

Personally, I like the idea of adding it as an outboard library, with
its own build scripts.

Damian