Upload Quality Was: Re: OpenOffice
From: "Craig Sanders" <cas@taz.net.au>
> On Thu, Aug 09, 2001 at 09:39:43PM +0100, David Starner wrote:
> > I don't agree. There's no point in putting something in unstable
> > that's so buggy it will never go into testing. If you can't get it
> > into a state where there are no RC bugs, then maybe it's just not
> > suitable for Debian yet.
> >
> > (From an unstable user who doesn't minding testing new packaging and
> > programs, but doesn't want Debian or Unstable to be the dumping ground
> > of half-baked packages.)
>
> it's not so much a dumping ground as a hacking workshop and beta
> distribution network.
It's an operating system. If it just doesn't work (i.e. there are RC bugs
that can't be fixed), then it doesn't belong in Debian. Why do you need a
distribution network for non-working software? Developers can download it
from a central site. If developers want to use Debian machines to test it
on, I don't see any problem. Just don't upload it until it works.
Note I'm not specifically talking about OpenOffice. If OpenOffice is
actually usuable for something by a non-developer, then great. If it's just
useful for development, there's no use in putting into unstable.
> OO sounds like it's a lot buggier than most applications (not surprising
> since it used to be commercial/proprietary code) but the only way it's
> going to conform to the standards expected of free software is if people
> work on it and test it.
When you've got a program that's almost done, I can write a helpful bug
report without much trouble. "I tried typing in an 80-character word, and it
ran off screen instead of wrapping." If it's a work in process, I can't. "It
crashed on startup." "Where did it crash on startup?" Well, I'm not in a
mood to download a large source ball, spend hours compiling, and hope it
still crashes in the same place so I can catch it with GDB. If someone is in
that mood, they're probably willing to download it from upstream and compile
it.
--
David Starner - dstarner98@aasaa.ofe.org
"The pig -- belongs -- to _all_ mankind!" - Invader Zim
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