debram and debtags

[Evan Prodromou]

So, some thoughts:

* This situation is at crisis mode. We have 12k packages, and what? 9
  categories? It's unbearable. We have to fix this.

* This is way too big a task for any one person to handle by
  oneself. It requires the input of the entire Debian community --
  developers and users. This is a hundred-person job, not a weekend
  hack.

* There is *zero* room for competition here. ANY competition between
  different designs will mean NO design will work. NOBODY is going to
  work on ANYTHING if they think there's the teeniest chance of it not
  being part of end results.

  I know for myself that I'm dedicated to this idea of a better
  organized debian package set. And yet the chances of me working on
  this project any more, after this discussion going on, are
  practically nil. The chance of half-involved people working on
  either project is double-nil.

* Technically, this is a bullshit job. No kidding. There are maybe
  20-30 ways to do this job, and not any one is more than a trivial
  one-off script. ANYBODY could write the software for this
  stuff. There is no glory to be had here. Just in case somebody's big
  swingin' coding macho was clouding their judgement.

  You only need to look at the scrapheap of curses-based apt shells to
  realize that a coolio hack doesn't really win in Debian. This isn't
  about programming, folks.

* Socially, this is a REALLY DIFFICULT job. The glory to be had here
  is in pulling together a plan, selling it to the Debian community,
  incorporating other efforts, and making this really work. If anyone
  wants to be a big stud, that's where the action is.

Let me reiterate this one more time: there's no gain here on technical
merits. NONE. A really superfantastic tagging system is just that:
tagging packages with text tags. YAWN. A really superfantastic tagging
system that nobody uses? Doesn't even deserve a yawn.

I very strongly suggest that the 'my system/your system' crap stops
right now. We're losing, and losing hard. I, for one, really don't
give a rat's ass how we stick tiny string descriptions onto
packages. I just care that it gets done.

~ESP

-- 
Evan Prodromou
evan@debian.org