[Devel] Bad problems due to function renaming

[Tim Ruehsen]

Hi,

I am using one of these 'binary' distributions (SuSE 8.1) which originally 
came with freetype 2.0.9. Meanwhile there were many packet updates including 
freetype 2.1.4. Since there are many people involved in packaging, some SuSE 
people, some externals, there is a bad mixture of packages - some compiled 
with freetype 2.0.9 some with 2.1.x. 'Bad' means there are broken libraries 
that rely on function naming from freetype 2.0.9. Applications relying on 
these libraries do not work any more (undefined symbol...). Downgrading 
freetype breaks other packages...

My first idea was to recompile all packages that where made for freetype 
2.0.9. But many source packages are broken or let's say not well done. So 
this is not an option.
Second was to install both versions in parallel. But it did not work.
Third was to switch over to Debian unstable. But did not find the time so far 
(I am using the desktop at work).

Now I ask you, the developers to put in the old function names (like 
FT_Seek_Stream) into freetype 2.1.x. In addition to the new ones. I think it 
is not that much work. The old functions are just calling the new ones. All 
the version conflicts then could be resolved by upgrading freetype.

I know other version of SuSE (<=8.1) and Mandrake are affected (google 
search).

Maybe you have another idea to solve the conflict?

Grtz, Tim