Re: this all this xxx-jp nonsense (was: Re: ITP: grep-ja)
In <19990831142854.C8841@mors.net> (Aug.31 1999 21:28 JST),
``Re: this all this xxx-jp nonsense (was: Re: ITP: grep-ja)'',
wichert@cs.leidenuniv.nl says:
=
= What annoys me is that there seems to be this desire to rush all those
= patches into Debian and that is mostly done by forking packages. I
= understand that you would like to all those updates packages in Debian,
= but there seems to be a lack of communication between the people making
= and maintaining the i8n-patches and the maintainers of the already
= existing packages (and sometimes even upstream maintainers).
[...]
I think I understand what you mean, and I agree. Making good
communication to make good collaboration is very important and
essential thing. I have no doubt about it.
[...]
= Remember the phrase `release fast, release often'? Trying to
= get those patches out fast will only encourage people to use and enhance
= them; waiting for a perfect patch does not make much sense. Perfection
= doesn't exist in software, there are always improvements possible.
Let's think about the Emacs. Until emacs20 had been released,
we had had another version of emacs which supports m17n, i.e.
MULE, the MULtilingual Extention of emacs, and a lot of result
of hard work around m17n with MULE had merged into emacs20.
Forking a software might not be good thing, but it's sometimes
needed to reach something special and difficult goal (m17n, in
this case), I think.
Merging those forked softwares is a right way and the best way, but
just collecting those forked softwares will be the next best way
when it's so hard to get the best way... this is what I want to say.
It seemed that a number of xxx-ja(or -jp) packages could be
merged into original xxx packages. This may be a good chance
to make good communication. I believe that the most of Japanese
Debian developers already have the intention of making good
communication, and just don't have self-confidence about their
own abilities for the communication. I know that even a Japanese
who is very good at English often says ``Oh, sorry, I'm not good
at English... ''. Funny :-)
--
Ken Nakagaki
Reply to: