DEP5: Let's calm down?
to, 2009-06-11 kello 18:18 +0200, Josselin Mouette kirjoitti:
> Le jeudi 11 juin 2009 à 16:16 +0300, Lars Wirzenius a écrit :
> > > - and a reason
> >
> > That's the killer point we should concentrate on.
> [ ... ]
>
> > Would Debian benefit from being able to easily query for things like
> > "packages linking to OpenSSL, licensed under GPL, but without an
> > exception"?
>
> Wait… you don’t know of an existing reason and are trying to make up
> one?
*sigh*
Josselin, even when I agree with you, you alienate me. Well done.
To clarify: I know that there is a need for something like DEP5 by some
commercial derivatives of Debian, even if it isn't used by everyone,
having been told this by them. This is not a reason for Debian to do
DEP5. I suggested a possible other reason for Debian to want DEP5, with
the intention to see if anyone agreed with this. I'm not telling Debian
that this is a good reason to do DEP5. I'm looking for reasons to
continue work on DEP5, not giving those reasons.
I find that the machine readable debian/copyright file proposal has been
handled badly almost from the beginning. After the first couple of dozen
edits, the wiki page was a bad place to develop it, because it's
difficult to follow the discussion and also because it's hidden from
most developers. After it was moved to the DEP process, there has been
little attempt at building support and consensus, and way too much
attitude, by people for and against the issue.
In this situation, I don't think we, the Debian development community,
are able to discuss this in a reasonable manner. It may be that DEP5 has
no use and should be forgotten, but right now we cannot reliably decide
on that. The battle lines have been dug, insults are being fired, and
tempers are running hot. Any decision for or against DEP5 right now will
mostly be done in anger, and that's no way to handle technical debates.
I propose that we take a break, let tempers calm down, and see if we
can't have a reasoned, sensible discussion about whether DEP5 is
worthwhile a week from now.
PS. Just to make things extra clear: I am weakly in favor of DEP5 as an
optional thing for those who want to use it, and strongly opposed to
making it mandatory. I admit to not having a list of good reasons for
Debian to want DEP5, but I would like the opportunity to discuss
possible reasons without having to fight all the time. I'm perfectly
happy with Debian reaching a consensus that DEP5 is not worth the
effort, but I want it be given a reasonable chance. Right now, all
sensible people are staying far away from anything related to DEP5 to
avoid being dragged into the mud.
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