[Debian-olpc-devel] 'rainbow' uploaded to mentors.debian.net

[Jonas Smedegaard]

On Mon, Nov 30, 2009 at 09:15:39PM +0100, Sascha Silbe wrote:
>On Mon, Nov 30, 2009 at 01:23:11PM +0100, Jonas Smedegaard wrote:
>
>>You have chosen to package something complicated.  Which requires 
>>you(!)  to gain knowledge in complicated areas.  You can't just 
>>expect to mirror  work of others - even after the packaging is 
>>"done" you will need to  _maintain_ it, meaning that if later on 
>>problems are discovered (e.g.  lintian is tightened and it is 
>>discovered that you treat the code as a  shared library when it is 
>>a plugin) and you will have to understand  matters then to be able 
>>to act on bugreports.
>Whoever ends up packaging and maintaining Rainbow, his/her work will 
>be greatly appreciated. I'm using Rainbow for quite some time now 
>(entirely outside of Sugar) and would like to install it on all of my 
>computers - without having to compile, install and update it myself 
>on all of them (4 different architectures, so no use compiling only 
>on a single machine).
>
>Take this as a kind of "kudos" mail (like reportbug can send) before 
>you even finished the work. :)

My message above could be misread as "Rainbow is too complex to be of 
interest to package".

And you message could be misread as "Rainbow is useful without following 
Policy - if only it compiles on the archs that I use then I am happy".

I certainly want Rainbow packaged for Debian.  And promoted universally.

What I don't want is to have it packaged for Debian by someone not 
able[1] to take responsibility of maintaining it, covered[2] by someone 
who lack the time and passion for it either.


  - Jonas



[1] Luke is not an official Debian developer. That title is not an 
indication of greatness or of technical skills, but one of social value: 
If Luke does a lousy job following Debian Policy and guidelines, he 
cannot be socially "punished" (e.g. fingerpointing or loud arguments in 
mailinglists and blogs) and likewise cannot earn proper fame within the 
social dynamics of Debian if doing a great job.

[2] When I sign and release officially for Debian a packaging work, then 
I take social responsibility for that work - no matter if the actual 
hard work is mostly done by Luke or by Michael.  It is not that I take 
the fame for the actual work, but yes, I do take the "fame" for that 
responsibility - and risk social consequences if it turns out that the 
packaging is done badly.


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

  [x] quote me freely  [ ] ask before reusing  [ ] keep private
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