[Mageia-discuss] Mageia-discuss Digest, Vol 2, Issue 119 Package descriptions

[andre999]

Ben a écrit :
> Perhaps the packagers and the backporters (assuming we have any)  
> should have their own digest mailing list.  The packagers are very 
> busy but the backporters (community members with the basic knowledge 
> to make an RPM from Cauldron) would be proud and happy to make sense 
> of users package description suggestions and pass on a heads up to the 
> packager if a good suggestion comes along.   It would cut down on the 
> noise that a true packager would have to wade through and, once a 
> relationship is developed between a packager and a backporter,  
> 'could'  make the packagers job somewhat easier while at the same time 
> (assuming that the backporters are good community members i.e.  IRC,  
> newbie and expert mailing list etc.) give users an easily accessible  
> point of contact for regular users.   I think users would appreciate 
> this.  Backporters would be glad to be a part of both the user and dev 
> community and packagers would be able to participate in the community 
> at the level they feel they are able to without feeling that they are 
> stretched thin.
> While I'm on this subject.  I think it might be a good idea to have 
> assigned backporters for packages or groups of packages.  Just a thought.
> benja22

A backporter is a packager who makes a backport.  Making a backport 
could be more complex than making an ordinary package, since the 
packager would have to adjust the dependancies of a more recent package 
to match those available in a previous release.  Otherwise installing 
the package could involve considerable other downloads.

Of course it wouldn't be a bad idea, as you suggest, for less 
experienced packagers to focus on improving package descriptions.
There has already been suggestions of having "master" (experienced) and 
"apprentice" (not-so-experienced) contributors for various functions, 
including packaging.
This idea would fit well with that.

As far as digests go, if you want to reply to something from a digest, 
it would be better to remove all parts not pertaining to your response, 
including the digest overhead.
This makes it easier for others to follow your logic.
(And if you plan to respond to a lot of posts, it might be better to 
subscribe to the usual individual post list.)

- André