Hello there,
I've had some time to think about this, so here is my opinion:
On Wed, Mar 13, 2013 at 10:35:43PM -0700, tony mancill wrote:
> On 03/13/2013 12:39 PM, Stefan Denker wrote:
>> Which "numerous challenges" are there concerning java in debian? I am
>> trying to gather some time every week for packaging software for Debian.
>> I might be able to help a bit.
> Thank you for continuing the thread in this manner. I feel like I'm
> fairly new to the team, having mostly I lurked on the list for a while
> myself, so I won't claim that the following is either representative or
> complete. But in IMO, in some rough semblance of level of commitment:
>
> 1) openjdk developers, both to provide support for security updates to
> openjdk-6 for wheezy and to work on openjdk-7 and beyond. I think
> Matthias' frustration here is well-warranted, as he is shouldering the
> entire load (and has for a *long* time).
I agree this is a problem, but I lack the qualification to help, I'm
afraid.
> 2) Java packing tool-chain developers, like the work that Thomas Koch is
> currently doing on the maven helpers, and Ludovic Claude and others
> before him. Work in this area will help make packaging go more quickly
> and be more accessible to more developers. For example, Steve Langasek
> provided a patch over a year ago to provide better support for debhelper
> [1], but there either isn't enough developer "bandwidth" or interest to
> assimilate these contributions.
This certainly is a problem. See hilkos rant, the toolchain is poorly
documented, etc. This needs improvement.
Now the patch is interesting. I'll have a look at it.
> 3) More developers concerned with policy. For example Rene's recent
> post is 100% correct - the current Java policy doesn't require Maven
> artifacts. However, I believe that is at least partly because maven
> wasn't as prevalent when the current policy was adopted. It's quite
> useful for Java libraries to provide this metadata when other software
> being packaged does use maven to manage its dependencies, and so it may
> be worth discussing.
Yeah, might be. But in my opinion java libraries work without maven, so
enforcing maven information is a bit over the top.
Instead, I'd recommend a helper program that creates a local maven-repo
and is able to install needed jars into this repo.
[snip: 4-6: more users, more help]
These are strongly interconnected. From what I've learned, you have to
make it easy for your users. The easier the process is to your
usergroup, the more users you will attract.
> the team would benefit from most any interaction that is helpful to
> FLOSS in general - it just feels like the Debian Java team could use a
> lot of it.
Seems like it. Hilkos rant didn't generate half the mails I thought it
would.
> If you're still reading and would like to help, find a
> package [2] or a bug [3] that needs some attention and provide a patch,
> or post back to list or via private email if you prefer with other ideas
> about how you'd like to participate.
We'll see. Naturally I have my own motivation: I am using Debian, I like
the debian way of doing things. And there are a fair number of software
libraries I am using this regularly I'd like to be able to
"just apt-get them". As time permits I will upload them.
Stefan
--
Much of the social history of the Western world over the past three decades has
involved replacing what worked with what sounded good.
Thomas Sowell, Is Reality Optional?, 1993
Attachment:
signature.asc
Description: Digital signature