[Lazarus] Only VCL-compatible components in LCL

[Martin Frb]

On 11/12/2014 07:54, Juha Manninen wrote:
> True, LCL must have other useful components, too. I am not really 
> against adding this particular component if it proves to be different 
> enough compared to existing comps. Somebody else must decide that.
> Still, I have understood LCL should be kept small rather than bloated. 
> It is not meant to cover every possible use case. It is ok to use 
> components from elsewhere.
> Suggesting CCR is seen as a punishment. Why? It was made for such 
> components. It supports maintenance of those components well. The 
> author gets commit access and there is a CCR section in bug tracker.
> Currently most CCR components are poorly maintained but it is the 
> fault of the fleeing authors, not CCR itself.
>
IMHO the question is, should it be distributed with the Lazarus 
releases, and therefore be added to the Lazarus SVN. IF so, it does not 
need to be LCL, there is also LazControls, or the option of a new package.

But the question remains if it should... Sure it is an useful component 
(though my idea of time-edit would be up/down arrows). There are lots of 
other useful components. Besides the question of maintenance (if it 
stops working, and no one maintains/fixes it, then it gets thrown out?), 
the installer already quite big. And there are still countries where 
bandwidth is not unlimited.

Even if this was added, what about the many that are not. The 
fundamental problem is making add-on components more accessible.

If this time-picker was added to the CCR it only highlights the existing 
problem. There must be a maintainer.
But adding it to the LCL (or main svn) does not change that. Without 
maintainer still will stop to work eventually. So adding it to the main 
SVN depends on an existing developer volunteering as maintainer. (and 
none has yet)

What the CCR need is either one release manager, or every contributor on 
the CCR doing that them self. Then for every Lazarus release a set of 
tested source archives could be offered for download, containing the 
version of each of the packages that works with the release.
If maintainers want to add such archives we can probably find a place to 
upload them all for download. Maybe it is even possible to add them to 
sourceforge in a separate folder. Then the CCR had the same visibility 
as the Lazarus releases themself