Re: Some thoughts about packages and priorities

[Jeremiah Foster <jeremiah@jeremiahfoster.com>]

On Aug 2, 2009, at 15:23, gregor herrmann wrote:

> During DebConf I talked with several people about the constantly
> growing amount of packages in our repo and about concerns regarding
> keeping the quality with the rising pile of work.

As always gregor you seem to do the heavy lifting. :-) Thanks for  
starting the discussion.

> In theory it might be nice to have some rules or guidelines for
> deciding about creating new packages, in practice that's probably to
> difficult. One evening I've written down the following thoughts, and
> before I forget about this file on my hard disk I decided to send it
> to the list:
>
> #v+
>
> "Quality before quantity"
> Or: What to upload, what to package?
>
> 1) Existing packages with RC bugs.
> 2) Existing packages with other bugs.
> 3) Existing packages with (useful) new upstream versions or (useful)
>   packaging changes (includes adopting packages).
> 4) New packages which are new deps of existing packages.
> 5) New packages with RFPs.
> 6) New packages with informal requests.
> 7) New packages that are "just nice".
>
> For ITPs:
> - Please X-Debbug-CC debian-perl@lists.debian.org
> - Please add a short note about _why_ this module is being packaged
>  or send a mail to debian-perl@lists.debian.org if it's about a
>  larger set of packages belonging together.
>
> #v-
>
> I'm not sure how useful these thoughts are for others, but I think
> I'll try to use the order of priorities listed above for my uploads
> in the next time and see how it works.

I think this is extremely useful. One potential worry I have is that  
people new to debian-perl often start at number 7 on your list, or  
they have their own itch to scratch. If there is a more formal "work  
on these packages first" policy, it might frustrate these new  
contributors.

Jeremiah