On Thu, 19 Mar 2009 16:40:33 +0000 (UTC) Sune Vuorela <nospam@vuorela.dk> wrote: > After a discussion on #debian-mentors and other places, I will not > sponsor packages using the copyright file format described on > http://wiki.debian.org/Proposals/CopyrightFormat As I said during one of those discussions on IRC, I feel similarly - there were some good points of the earlier drafts of that page and I use these in my own packages but the current version is completely unusable and unacceptable. (For an example of an acceptable midpoint, see http://packages.debian.org/changelogs/pool/main/t/tslib/current/copyright) I feel strongly that debian/copyright must be human-readable as a priority over being machine-interpretable. After all, I need to be able to parse it and understand it. I'll be updating my sponsoring requirements in due course. Where debian/copyright can be made easier to follow by using some of the machine-interpretable ideas, I value those elements. However, writing and updating debian/copyright is an intensely manual task (for better or for worse) and trying to automate such a complex area only results in an overly complicated format. I believe that this is a bad idea and indicative of poor packaging by the maintainer. Overly complicated copyright files, files that I cannot understand at first reading, files that contain errors - all will need modification before sponsoring. > It is a too complex, overengineered solution to a very minor issue. > It is not easy readables for humans > It is ugly > Too time consuming to write and check > No real gain. > > Discussions about this is welcome, but I think debian-devel is a better > forum for that. Agreed - please do not discuss the merits or inadequacies of the format here although it would be handy if other sponsors just set out their preferences for debian/copyright. -- Neil Williams ============= http://www.data-freedom.org/ http://www.linux.codehelp.co.uk/ http://e-mail.is-not-s.ms/
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