Intent to create: QtEZ
Hi people,
I apologize for the size of this but I have had questions and thoughts
piling up for awhile and I figured I would just put them all in one place
and let everyone have at it. As I am not subscribed to the list at the
moment you may feel free to flame me in person ( or just respond;)) if
you so desire. Anyway, it might spawn a useful thread ...
<ANNOUNCE>
I have a functioning .deb of QtEZ (needs a little clean-up and docs)
which is a RAD/IDE for the qt2 toolkit. <ack, no please don't throw stuff
at me..> Its fairly stable but definately a work in progress and promises
to be a pretty capable little WYSIWIG widget editor. ( I like it cause I am
learning C++ and it gives me alot of code to look at right away, and plus
its just fun to play with = nice learning tool).
</ANNOUNCE>
Anyway, I have been working with the main author and he is happy to have
a deb made . There is a CVS repository at sourceforge.net ( search for
QtEZ ) if any one wants to check out the project and a Home page for qtez
at <http://qtez.ibl.sk> for more info. As soon as I get the package
finished I will be making it available at these sites - but as long as I
have one that works I thought maybe people would like to put it in the
distribution. However, I am not very clear on how to proceed from here - I
know, I know; RTM.. I have been going through them but its pretty thick
stuff and I could use a little human interaction at some point. I also
would like to know if anyone even wants it in there (or not).
I have a couple of puzzles too: I am not sure if QtEZ fits the DFSG or
not. It is licensed under the QPL and I know that there is some
controversy over this license, but it is _not_ part of KDE. I have read
the QPL free license and, while it does not allow for "commercial" use of
the components it is explicitly free for non-commercial developement on
linux. Its a short license and could use some work but the intent is
pretty clear ( although I can see how this one may conflict with the GPL,
thus spawning The Great KDE Debate. ). The only concern is the commercial
one - in which case I suppose one simply gets the other license for qt.
But I don't know how this (the commercial) applies to QtEZ and therefor to
debian, so its all a little puzzling. Comments ?
Additionally I am not clear on some of the protocols for including this in
the distibution - or even if it is a good idea for me to pursue. I am sure
it would be fine to simply offer it at the qtez sites. But if there is an
interest and maybe a little help getting through the hoops I would be
happy to put it in the regular archives.
<begin main unclear points>
* how ( or even whether ) to become a debian developer; & do I need to
do this just to submit a new package? After announcing, then what?
* the mailing list thing: I have an internet email account and it tends
to spazz out if I subscribe to a high volume list - any way around this?
* being a maintainer: I am not sure how much time I will have to devote
to .deb maintainance - how much is typical? are there other alternatives (
like, is anyone else interested in this package ? ... team maintainance ?
... other ?)
* QtEZ has one binary but also some shared libraries and a place for
tutorials, data, and plugins ( which I have tentatively in /usr/lib and
/usr/lib/qtez respectively ) - this works as a "single binary" for dpkg -b
but I don't know if it fits protocol or tradition.
* I only have x86 machines to work on - is it ok to release for just
one arch?
* the PGP/GPG thing: it seems to me that PGP ( which, duhh, I
don't even know how to use... ) is overkill for non-security related apps.
Flame or enlighten me at will.
* Unimportant comment: This process, along with much of the debian
documentation is fairly difficult to digest and quite time consuming. I
have been using, installing and administering debian full time for almost a
year ( which I am sure brings me almost up to the level of Rank Beginner )
and I still have a hard time getting through the docs and beuracracy - is
there any interest in working on simplification or refining ( ie. making
more accessable ) the documentation et.al. ? It really is a great platform
and I wish more people could use it with less hair pulling... B=).
</unclear points>
ok, that should start something.
Response, help, comments are welcome ...
Thanks all for everything!
erik
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