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Re: New Package: spamdb 0.1 (source all)



On Sun, 26 Oct 1997, Dirk Eddelbuettel wrote:

> 
>   Christoph>  It was announced on debian-devel-changes. Why another
>   Christoph> announcement on debian-devel?
> 
> You still don't get it. 
> 
> *Before* you do work on a package, you should announce as a 'statement of
> intent to start work on a package' to avoid duplication before it
> happends. If it is after the fact, it does not help anyone.

There are lots of other advantages of this policy:

   * It helps the (potentially new) maintainer to tap into the experience
     of people on the list, and lets them know if any one else is working
     on it already

   * It lets other people thinking about working on the package know that
     there already is a volunteer, and efforts may be shared

   * It lets the rest of the maintainers know more about the package than
     the one line description and the changelog entry "Initial version"
     that generally gets posted to debian-devel-changes by default

   * It is helpful to the people who live off unstable (and form our first
     line of testers); we should encourage these people

   * I think the annoncements gives us a better feel of what is going on,
     and what is new, in the project.

   * We should not dismiss anybody who installs from usntable and helps us
     debug our packages as "fools, fools, you installed from unstable; you
     deserve what you get" -- we derive a certain benefit from the alpha
     testers

   * If we appreciate alpha testers, than any name changes have to be
     backwards compatible with the people who already installed the old
     package (conflict and relace old package name at a minimum)


I think the most important aspect is to announce the _name_ of the
package, as changing the name later on is a lot of work and can confuse
the users (and developers).

So please announce all new packages on debian-devel _before_ uploading
them!


Thanks,

Chris

--          _,,     Christian Schwarz
           / o \__   schwarz@monet.m.isar.de, schwarz@schwarz-online.com,
           !   ___;   schwarz@debian.org, schwarz@mathematik.tu-muenchen.de
           \  /        
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  "DIE ENTE BLEIBT DRAUSSEN!"


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