Hi, Am Mittwoch, den 04.08.2010, 17:25 -0500 schrieb Peter Samuelson: > [Peter Samuelson] > > Source code is a means to an end. The end is the ability of the end > > user to customize the software. If you get source code but no way to > > build a new .swf file from it, this end is not served. > > Also, I'm a proponent of the idea of always building our packages from > source - just to make sure we actually _can_, thus preserving the > principle above. I think it is a valuable service to the end-user to > express the build process using Build-Depends and debian/rules. They > don't need to say "OK, I fixed this bug or typo or whatever, now how do > I recompile it?" They don't need to wonder whether it's even > _possible_ to rebuild what they've changed (without, for example, going > out and buying some non-free tool). there were also cases of code-genearting tools (gob2 in my case) where the package was built from the generated .c files instead the .gob source files, and it happened that the .gob files were incompatible with gob2 as shipped by Debian (they used unreleased features). I wanted to change the program and could not. This particular issue has been fixed by now, though, but it makes clear why building from source is important. Greetings, Joachim -- Joachim "nomeata" Breitner Debian Developer nomeata@debian.org | ICQ# 74513189 | GPG-Keyid: 4743206C JID: nomeata@joachim-breitner.de | http://people.debian.org/~nomeata
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