Cairo 1.17.8 Released - OpenGL/GLES Drawing Removed, Better macOS & Windows Support

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Cairo 1.17.8 Released - OpenGL/GLES Drawing Removed, Better macOS & Windows Support

Cairo 1.17.8 was released this week as a new development snapshot of this 2D vector graphics library that over the years has seen widespread use by a multitude of desktop software...

https://www.phoronix.com/news/Cairo-1.17.8-Released

[Danny3]

Disgusting!

[caligula]

In general, it seems that traditional desktop centered open source is dying. People are switching to web based technologies. Almost nobody writes code in C/C++. That's pretty much apparent if you look at the release schedules of Xorg, GIMP, Cairo etc.

[abott]

Crappy devs who didn't learn anything in college and crutch on web dev technologies instead of writing in C/CPP are becoming more abundant. Doesn't mean this is a trend that will last, or the desktop will disappear, lol. The abstractions are sadly doing too well and invading computing in a bad way, sure, but if anything it's just really consolidation of projects into worthwhile open source ones. Open source needs to cut the stupid craft people use and make less stuff that works better. This is a needed step in this whole thing, really.

Computers are just getting powerful enough that if people want to use their shitty web framework for a lot of stuff, they can. Hopefully capitalistic ideals of "make it better" will allow companies who are willing to use better technology that might take longer to get out the door have a nice time destroying these browser-based services in short order. E.g. I've always wanted to replace Discord with...well, nearly anything. It sucks so badly. All the integrations are a crutch of their own shitty design of the entire platform. Just an awful piece of software. Bloated, runs like crap, too simple for its own good with the world's worst UI ever devised. Just gross.

Something along the lines of Opera GX, except not mostly advertising BS, will hopefully replace those crappy framework programs.

[neoe]

In general, it seems that traditional desktop centered open source is dying. People are switching to web based technologies. Almost nobody writes code in C/C++. That's pretty much apparent if you look at the release schedules of Xorg, GIMP, Cairo etc.

How did you come to this conclusion? Nothing is dying, they are different regions, C is still the foundation of all the software today, and widely used. Less changes on the projects you mentioned is called stable.

[schmidtbag]

I don't see the problem with web-based apps. I'd much rather have a home server where my apps can be accessible from cheap and efficient thin clients. Web apps allow for cross compatibility across a wider user-base, and they don't have to be SaaS. The vast majority of the time I spend on my home or work PC is either a terminal or a web browser.

[Nth_man]

How did you come to this conclusion? Nothing is dying, they are different regions, C is still the foundation of all the software today, and widely used. Less changes on the projects you mentioned is called stable.

Yes.

"Last month, C++ won the TIOBE programming language of the year award for 2022. C++ is continuing its success in 2023 so far. Its current year-over-year increase is 5.93%. This is far ahead of all other programming languages, of which the most popular ones only gain about 1%."

https://www.tiobe.com/tiobe-index/

C and Python were the runners-up
https://www.infoworld.com/article/36...ear-award.html

[zamadatix]

In general, it seems that traditional desktop centered open source is dying. People are switching to web based technologies. Almost nobody writes code in C/C++. That's pretty much apparent if you look at the release schedules of Xorg, GIMP, Cairo etc.

have you looked at Wayland, Krita, Skia, etx? Just because the programs started decades ago are not as active as they once were doesn’t mean it’s because nobody uses the languages they were written in anymore.

[kpedersen]

In general, it seems that traditional desktop centered open source is dying.

All the better to seriously consider maintaining what we already have.

Realistically, Wayland will never have as much software as X11 due to this recent trend of web/DRM. Likewise, if you look at the old DOS archives, there is tonnes of great software in there that simply doesn't exist on "modern" Windows in the same accessible way. We are effectively reducing the amount of software we have access to as we strive for modernness for modernnesses sake.

Just to clarify, this isn't a gripe about Wayland. Merely that the days of writing cool interesting desktop utils is coming to an end. Wayland represents a potential reset that unfortunately would have the side effect of chucking irreplaceable (due to current trends) stuff off a cliff.

Check out the following for examples of old (sometimes less useful) software. Not big and complex but... available:

https://cyber.dabamos.de/unix/x11/

https://x11cp.org/ (broken)

Luckily we do have C, it is stable as hell and everything depends on it. This is probably the last bastion for digital preservation.

[kn00tcn]

https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/cairo...e_requests/287 always was a prototype? a decade of little to no work being put in it? problems with nvidia? distros only briefly tried enabling it in the past? nobody really used it? most everything if needed draws onto opengl directly?

such obnoxious replies in the original thread and this one, dannyboy as always with the emotional misinformed reply