Re: Looking for an advocate
On Tuesday 22 February 2005 21.51, Christoph Berg wrote:
> Speaking as someone who recently passed the NM queue (I'm waiting for
> DAM approval), I can say that the best way to get used to all stuff is
> to just use it. I've been using Debian for several years now, and have
> been hanging around in Debian-related IRC channels where you just see
> all sorts of packaging stuff/buildd failures/policy issues/bug
> reports/whatever all day, so after some time you just "know" it.
Amen brother.
I'd phrase it this way: Don't try to become a Debian Developer just because
it's the 'in' thing to do. Become a Debian Developer by being one (albeit
without account and voting rights), and after some time, P&P and especially
T&S will just be a quick glance at the manuals to make sure of some details
that you've not encountered yet in your Debian work.
Same thing: don't package a random program just because you need a package
in the archive. If everything that you need is already packaged and
reasonably well-maintained, fine, there's no reason for you to pick up
additional work. Help by reporting bugs, fixing bugs, doing other stuff.
Hang around on the Debian mailing lists, get familiar with the project.
Then, when you really need a program that is not packaged, you have a much
bigger motivation to actually get it done.
The above is exactly how I did proceed: I thought about becoming a DD for
some time, but my first attempt at packaging some thing is still unfinished
- because it's just some stuff to package, not something I actually use.
Later, when I saw that postgrey is not packaged, I had something to package
that I actually wanted to use, so that package was made and uploaded within
less than 3 weeks. P&P and T&S also were quick and relatively easy -
exactly because I took the time to familiarize with the project (Note to my
AM: yes, my answers were extremely brief. I promise to re-read the
relevant docs whenever I do something the first time :-)
just my € .02
(And I have *not* said that the current process/docs/... could not be
improved.)
-- vbi
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