2010.02.11 21:56 "[Tiff] TIFF and IJG JPEG 8", by Bob Friesenhahn

2010.02.27 15:42 "Re: [Tiff] Libtiff 4.0.0beta5 Released", by Jay Berkenbilt

Hi Jay,

> If there are any debian users out there looking for an easy way to test > 4.0.0 beta 4, you can find it in debian's "experimental" distribution.

> The debian version is pristine -- no patches at all have been applied.

Has there been any updates on this? This is related to my post on the libtiff mailing list:

>...

Debian experimental has had 4.0.0 beta 5 since the day it was released. There have been no bugs reported against it. I have no way to know how many people have installed it, but I did make an announcement about it on the debian-devel mailing list to encourage people to test their packages with it. Past experience suggests that this usually results in some testing.

As for the question of debian's version of tiff, it's too close to the freeze in preparation of the release of squeeze (the squeeze freeze?) to do a big library transition. It looks the jpeg8 transition may also be pushed off until after the release.

If there is a 3.9.3, I will package it and upload it before the release.

If there is a 4.0.0, I will upload it to experimental, and as soon as squeeze is released, I will work with the release team to transition debian over to 4.0.0. Most likely Ubuntu will follow -- I don't see a tiff or jpeg transition as something that they would do separately from debian like they might with a python, gnome, or gcc transition.

As for bugs, there are four bugs opened against tiff in debian's bug tracking system. Two are debian-specific, and the other two are already in the tiff bug database as bugs 1893 and 2078. Both bugs are in tiff2pdf, which has been responsible for the vast majority of libtiff bugs in debian. I personally use grahicsmagick to convert tiffs to pdf instead of using tiff2pdf, and this is what I recommend to others as well. There are also 6 bugs reported against the tiff packages in Ubuntu's bug tracking system, but they are all either Ubuntu-specific, user questions, or related to known problems. The known problem is also a bug in tiff2pdf.

So from my perspective (which may or may not be all that valuable), I see no reason not to proceed with releasing 4.0.0 (or doing a release candidate). And I would be committed to getting it into debian as soon as possible, with the caveat that "as soon as possible" is probably many months away as we head toward what promises to be a long freeze preceding the next release.

--Jay