One further point, going back a ways in this bug history: On Sat, Nov 06, 2010 at 09:16:32PM +0100, Stefano Zacchiroli wrote: > Nevertheless, the big issue is undeniably still open: maintenance of the > main Python interpreter packages is still up to a single maintainer, > with no mutual trust and/or communication between him and (most of) the > rest of the Debian Python community. > Additionally, as DPL, I'm worried by seeing packages as important as the > Python interpreters maintained by a single person. Even if all other > surrounding issues were not there, that would be a bus-factor problem > worth fixing by itself. (I concede there are other similar situations > in the archive, but this is no excuse; they are just other problems to > be solved.) When maintainers of related packages are unable to work together, that is a problem and something that the TC should be concerned about. But the notion that important packages with a single maintainer are "problems to be solved" is a specious one that is not worthy of the TC's consideration. There are plenty of clever developers capable of picking up where the previous maintainer left off in the event of a "bus event", regardless of the package or the packaging helper in use, and I have yet to see any evidence that team-maintained packages are in better condition than non-team-maintained ones (and I have plenty of anecdotes to the contrary). Team maintenance is a reasonable practice to encourage, because in many cases this will reduce the average turnaround on bugs; but that's not true in all cases, and treating this as a "problem to solve" maligns the enormous contributions of single maintainers to Debian over the years. The TC should concern itself here with ensuring that the python packages are well maintained and the python ecosystem within Debian is healthy, using /whatever maintenance structure works best for the developers involved/, and take no position on the essentially political question of team maintenance as a rule. -- Steve Langasek Give me a lever long enough and a Free OS Debian Developer to set it on, and I can move the world. Ubuntu Developer http://www.debian.org/ slangasek@ubuntu.com vorlon@debian.org
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