:date: 2017-12-14

===========================
Thursday, December 14, 2017
===========================

The straw that breaks the camel's back
======================================

The latest `Sencha Product Roadmap Update
<https://www.sencha.com/blog/sencha-product-roadmap-update/>`__ might
be the straw that breaks the camel's back.  "What’s the position on
future GPL releases?"  was the first question after this post. It was
asked by Chris Alfano from `Jarvus <http://jarv.us/>`__ two weeks
ago. And their answer is `void`.

.. raw:: html

    <p align="center"><a title="Zoltan Kluger [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AAN_ARAB_FARMER_TAKING_STRAW_TO_HIS_FARM._%D7%97%D7%A7%D7%9C%D7%90%D7%99_%D7%A2%D7%A8%D7%91%D7%99_%D7%A8%D7%9B%D7%95%D7%91_%D7%A2%D7%9C_%D7%97%D7%9E%D7%95%D7%A8_%D7%9E%D7%95%D7%91%D7%99%D7%9C_%D7%A2%D7%9C_%D7%92%D7%91%D7%99_%D7%94%D7%92%D7%9E%D7%9C_%D7%A7%D7%A9.D813-124.jpg"><img width="60%" alt="AN ARAB FARMER TAKING STRAW TO HIS FARM. חקלאי ערבי רכוב על חמור מוביל על גבי הגמל קש.D813-124" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9b/AN_ARAB_FARMER_TAKING_STRAW_TO_HIS_FARM._%D7%97%D7%A7%D7%9C%D7%90%D7%99_%D7%A2%D7%A8%D7%91%D7%99_%D7%A8%D7%9B%D7%95%D7%91_%D7%A2%D7%9C_%D7%97%D7%9E%D7%95%D7%A8_%D7%9E%D7%95%D7%91%D7%99%D7%9C_%D7%A2%D7%9C_%D7%92%D7%91%D7%99_%D7%94%D7%92%D7%9E%D7%9C_%D7%A7%D7%A9.D813-124.jpg/512px-AN_ARAB_FARMER_TAKING_STRAW_TO_HIS_FARM._%D7%97%D7%A7%D7%9C%D7%90%D7%99_%D7%A2%D7%A8%D7%91%D7%99_%D7%A8%D7%9B%D7%95%D7%91_%D7%A2%D7%9C_%D7%97%D7%9E%D7%95%D7%A8_%D7%9E%D7%95%D7%91%D7%99%D7%9C_%D7%A2%D7%9C_%D7%92%D7%91%D7%99_%D7%94%D7%92%D7%9E%D7%9C_%D7%A7%D7%A9.D813-124.jpg"/></a></p>


This observation is only one of many.

In their post `It’s Back: Ext JS Single Developer License
<https://www.sencha.com/blog/its-back-ext-js-single-developer-license/>`__
(December 1, 2017), Robert Warmack writes "I am sure a lot of you have
questions. We have addressed several questions below and encourage you
to check out our updated FAQ page. If there are additional questions
that we have not yet addressed, please do feel free to send them to
feedback@sencha.com.".  I sent them my question:

    Getting support for the GPL community version

    I read the latest `blog post
    <https://www.sencha.com/blog/its-back-ext-js-single-developer-license/>`__
    and yes, you have our continued support, and we feel a part of the
    Sencha Community, and our old question is still unanswered: how
    can we contribute to the community given the fact that we refuse
    to use the non-GPL parts of ExtJS?

And their answer --so far-- is: silence.

Their `download page for the GPL version
<https://www.sencha.com/legal/GPL/>`_ starts as follows:

    For developers that are willing to release the source code to their
    applications, Sencha provides an open source licensing option for
    these frameworks. To use this license, you must follow the terms of
    the GPL v3; see highlights below.

I am not a lawyer, but AFAICS this summary of the GPL is factually
wrong.  The GPL does not oblige you to release your code when it is
being used only within your own company. The obligation comes only
when you want to make make money by giving your code to other people.
Yes, in many cases the result is the same, but presented like Sencha
do it, it looks as if they want to discourage us from using the GPL
version.


All this tells me that Sencha does not care a bit for their GPL
community.  I had been hoping that ExtJS's new managers are wiser than
those before.

It is sad but seems true: we should stop working on the ExtJS user
interface and rather invest our time into something that deserves our
work.

My suggestion: we switch back Jane to ExtJS3, stop working on ExtJS6
until we have a clear and positive statement from Idera about these
questions.


Testing under both Python 2 and 3
=================================

Yesterday and today I grew my experience with writing tests (unit and
doctest) that work under both Python versions... There were 45
failures when I started.

:func:`atelier.utils.rmu` now honors Mike Orr's :class:`unipath.Path`
objects which happen to print differently under Python 3.

Added a new function :func:`atelier.utils.sixprint`.

>>> from builtins import str
>>> import six
>>> s = str("aei")
>>> isinstance(s, six.string_types)
True


Thanks to http://python3porting.com/problems.html I discovered the
`IGNORE_EXCEPTION_DETAIL` doctest flag which handles differences in
exception formatting.


- 2017-12-14 23:57 in *atelier*:
  `031cdfa <https://github.com/lino-framework/atelier/commit/39f7dc22acce9a1a86ee1826296fc87d5031cdfa>`__
- 2017-12-14 23:58 in *lino*:
  `08c492a <https://gitlab.com/lino-framework/lino/commit/621ea058b615f2f3c5ae05a49c0bfa42808c492a>`__
- 2017-12-14 23:58 in *lino_xl*:
  `bce0af8 <https://github.com/lino-framework/xl/commit/42e5fc2785eaa05ae63a807d65e6881c6bce0af8>`__
- 2017-12-14 23:59 in *lino_book*:
  `0e812fc <https://github.com/lino-framework/book/commit/4d83a9b8d284906f31b96cbf18d532b870e812fc>`__