[WON'T FIX] Conversion to blueprint

[danascape]

• Can we convert Android.mk to blueprints?

I'd be happy to do that and make a PR

[petefoth]

Thanks for the offer. I have heard / read something about this recently and I guess it's something the project should do. I'd be very happy to look at a PR if you have time to do the work.

It also would be good to have some information in this issue - maybe links to other issues / relevant web pages or blog posts - about

1. Why this change is necessary
2. The scope and nature of the needed changes

That gives a 'specification' for the change, and something to review the PR against. (I'm an old-fashioned software engineer, I prefer having a documented spec and a design to the 'move fast and break things' method 😄

[danascape]

Having a documentation for a change is also what I prefer, I just wanted to ask for your opinion before I went forward with it, else it would have been of now use. thank you I'll proceed with it then

[petefoth]

@danascape : I have been thinking about this issue again, and I have decided that we won't fix it, at least for now. My reasons:

1. The current system - using Android.mk - works, and there is no indication that Google will actually turn off support that any time soon. it isn't 'broken', so there is no need to 'fix' it;
2. As you have found, migration involves a significant amount of work (for all the contributors - you, @ale5000-git, me) but for very little real benefit, mainly because:
3. This repo - and using it to include F-Droid and the microG components in our builds - will itself be 'broken' quite soon (and will be deprecated, and maybe eventually archived), mainly because microG GmsCore has become too big to be managed in GitHub as we currently do (see microG Services v0.3.10 is over 100 MB and it will be rejected by GitHub #53 ). My preferred solution to that issue (which is almost done), is to use the android_vendor_extendrom project, to download the extra components from F-Droid and / or Github at build time. See Use sfX-android/android_vendor_extendrom project to manage the extra components #55

So thank you very much for the work you have done on this, but the project is not going to use that work. It has not been wasted: I am very happy that some of the work needed for moving from Android.mk to Android.bphas been done, and could be used i future, either by android_vendor_extendrom if Google ever do stop supporting use of Android.mk, or by others who may want to use it for their own purposes and projects.

So thanks again for your efforts, and my apologies for not making this decision sooner. I will leave the issue open but mark it as `Won't fix'

[danascape]

@petefoth I got the reasons and I think you are right in the regards, that until Google ever fully stops the usage of Android.mk then we can consider this fully, this is one of the beauties of open-source that I love :).

Thank you for your time, let's leave this open as well.