[Debian-olpc-devel] Status of the Sugar packaging in Debian/Ubuntu

[Jonas Smedegaard]

Hi Siegfried,

On Thu, Dec 10, 2009 at 04:33:13PM +0100, Siegfried-Angel Gevatter Pujals wrote:

>Let me introduce myself, my name is Siegfried Gevatter and I'm an 
>Ubuntu Developer and in Debian's NM process (other than that and some 
>little pet projects, I'm also a GNOME Member, mostly involved in 
>Zeitgeist).

Wauw - sounds like you have your hands full already :-)


>Well, I've recently had the chance to meet some people of the Sugar
>team, and one of the developers, David Farning (whom I'm CC'ing), has
>asked me for help with getting Sugar into Ubuntu. As a strong believer
>that such stuff should be done in Debian (to avoid duplicate work, get
>it to more people, etc., but why am I telling you what you already
>know :)) II wanted to ask you before doing anything what's the status
>of the Sugar packaging in Debian and what we can do to help get it
>rolling.

Short answer: Look at http://wiki.debian.org/Sugar

I'll try elaborate a bit...

 From Sugarlabs POV Sugar consists of core/official stuff (Sucrose) and 
community additions (Honey), and Sucrose is separated between framework 
(Glucose) and activities (Fructose).

Debian (or at least my personal) POV is slightly different, as an 
underlying Fedora system isn't assumed.  Some libraries in Fedora needs 
packaging for Debian, while some are packaged already but need changes 
to fit Sugar needs.

I focus mostly on Sucrose until fully packaged, but that should not stop 
uthers from packaging Honey activities and their eventual custom 
depending libraries or helper apps.

What lacks the most currently is a clear overview.  The fact that you 
ask indicates (besides an excuse for saying "hi, here I am") this 
weakness.  Would be great if you or someone else could dive into the (to 
me) mysterious world of debbugs usertags and tag bugs in other packes 
that indirectly affect Sugar - and to generally massage bugs, file more 
of them - not to _create_ more bugs but more realistically locate and 
document issues that no doubt exist already. And coordinate bugreports 
with upstream ones.

Another related task is to file RFP bugreports for all missing/wanted 
parts of Sugar and its dependent libraries. And perhaps form a Debian 
Pure Blend[1] and use the wonderful Blend tool to visualize[2] those 
pending tasks, and more.

[1] http://wiki.debian.org/DebianPureBlends 

[2] http://wiki.debian.org/Blends/BugsPages


Regarding concrete packaging, as mentioned earlier I focus on Sucrose 
parts.

Etoys packaging has stalled due to disagreements on how it should be 
provided (as an educational tool or a development IDE).  I have joined 
the packaging team nut have not yet done any actual contrinutions there.

Write needed a Python wrapper for Abiword, which is almost ready 
(available in experimental only as a libabiword bug blocks it from 
compiling).  The actual Write activity is in prepaation but not yet 
finished.

Pippy has some problems compiling when upgraded to newest release - I 
forgot the details.


All Sugar activities are either brabched for each Sugar branch, or 
declared using virtual packages which branches they work with.  Some 
Sugar-related libraries are similarly branched (although that is ugly 
IMO and I try to avoid it despite upstream promotion of different 
versions needed for each Sugar branch.


Hmmm. That's as much as I remember at the moment.  Feel free to ask 
more, and please do summarise at our wiki page!


>By the way, David has created quite some Sugar packages, which are 
>available at 
>https://edge.launchpad.net/~sugarteam/+archive/0.86/+packages. I 
>haven't really looked at them yet nor at what Debian already has, but I 
>hope they'll serve as a starting point.

Yes, I am aware that he have dived into Ubuntu-specific packaging.  My 
impression is that he consider Debian packaging a too steep learning 
curve and Ubuntu a stepping stone for "proper" packaging.

But that interpretation is mine alone - he has not shared his 
Ubuntu-devotion or reasonings behind it with me or with this list.

Occasionally I glance at outside packaging efforts, both Ubuntu and 
other more "alien" ones, as inspiration but no more than that: It makes 
no sense to me to treat Ubuntu as upstream for Debian.


  - Jonas

-- 
* Jonas Smedegaard - idealist & Internet-arkitekt
* Tlf.: +45 40843136  Website: http://dr.jones.dk/

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