2021.01.16 21:13 "[Tiff] C99, part 2", by Roger Leigh

2021.01.18 15:00 "Re: [Tiff] C99, part 2", by Olivier Paquet

The one bit I’m not convinced by is the “legacy-types” option at configure time. It adds additional complexity and variability to a libtiff installation which might cause more problems than it’s worth, especially when you can just compile with the “TIFF_LEGACY_TYPES” macro for the same effect. If there are no objections, I’d like to drop this part.

The only use I can think of for it is as a quick fix for someone facing a bunch of things which won't build. With this option, they could flip a switch in libtiff and report bugs to the packages which failed to build. Without, they'd have to delay the libtiff upgrade until all the packages are fixed.

If we do have the option, I think it should come with a big warning that it is a temporary transition measure and we should set a date for removing it. Otherwise, it might just end up being used permanently somewhere and we will keep polluting the global namespace.

Olivier