Re: Format 3.0 (git)

[Tollef Fog Heen <tfheen@err.no>]

]] "Bernhard R. Link" 

| * Charles Plessy <plessy@debian.org> [110924 08:30]:
| > If in a large number of cases where one would like to turn off the patch system
| > of the 3.0 (quilt) format, the source package is stored in a Git repository,
| > then one way to move forward would be to make the format 3.0 (git) available
| > in Debian.  What are the blocking points ?
| 
| Apart from license problems, practical problems with reviewability and
| stuff like that, people like me are very much opposed as it is quite
| against the ideals of Debian in some very important aspects:

I find reviewing what's changed between two arbitrary versions in git
much easier than doing the same with debian source packages, so I think
it's pretty clear this is a matter of preference.

| - Debian is about freedom. Freedom in software is about about enabling
|   people to "scratch their itch", to modify the software to suite their
|   need and what they consider best for them.

Yes, and to continue that thread: The way we do that is to distribute
the source of our work.  The most useful definition of source I've come
across is the GPL's: The preferred form for modification.

Given I maintain my packages in git, it's quite clear that the preferred
form for modification of my packages is through git and not debian
source packages.  That we don't have a good way of distributing the
source of packages is a fault I think we should address.

I don't put much weight on the «it should be simple to hack on packages
and VCSes make it hard» argument.  IME, there are many more people who
know how to drive git than there are people who know how to usefully
hack on Debian packages.

git used to be hard to use back in the olden days, but it isn't
particularly hard nowadays.

Cheers,
-- 
Tollef Fog Heen
UNIX is user friendly, it's just picky about who its friends are