Re: Four days

[Vincent Carmona <vinc4mai@gmail.com>]

2010/10/5 Johan Van de Wauw <johan.vandewauw@gmail.com>:
> On Sat, Oct 2, 2010 at 1:00 AM, Asheesh Laroia <asheesh@asheesh.org> wrote:
>
> Not something that is implemented overnight, but I think there should
> be a solution for new packages which are often useful for users, but
> not (yet?) up to debian high standards. I really like the way ubuntu's
> launchpad ppas are set up: anyone with an account can create an
> archive and upload his source packages.
>  If such an archive gives the chance to users to report bugs and also
> the usage (eg popcon, download stats) of packages in that archive, it
> could be used by sponsors to pick packages which actually have users.
> And if it is not picked up by a sponsor at least the users can enjoy
> the packaging work which was done.
> Apart from that, I believe users in some cases better reviewers than
> sponsors. A sponsor may complain about the standards version which is
> not up to date with the latest version and/or some lintian errors, but
> may not notice bugs which really limit the usability of the
> application.
>
> One could argue that such a packages - if they had a copyright review
> - could go to experimental, but if a system like launchpad ppas would
> exist (where you can upload new versions of a package without needing
> a sponsor) the barrier is lowered even more.
>
> What I dislike about this ppa system (and coming more on topic) is
> that it does not really encourage towards becoming an official package
> and also doesn't learn about how to work with these official packages.
> Eg closing bugs by doing an upload, ...
>

My first package was accepted recently.
I think I would not attempt packaging for debian if ppa does not existed.

My experience goes through 3 steps:

build a simple deb file by in vocking "dpkg-deb --build" on "destdir" install.
Use ppa to learn the process of packaging (d/rules...). My ppa
packages are ugly but they install wanted files.
Join a team and begin to learn clean packaging.

-- 
Vincent Carmona