Re: How can a non-DD join/help the debian-perl group?
On Sep 15, 2009, at 8:21, Dusty Wilson [Megagram] wrote:
I was watching the Debconf videos and noticed that there was a great
interest in getting people involved in Debian development. I've
always been resistant to join simply because it feels like there is a
big barrier to entry. After watching the videos, I felt less
concerned about this. Someone on the video said that there are always
plenty of tasks available in the perl group.
I have spoken to Debian Developers who felt that they _had_ to become
a DD to get the software they wanted into Debian. I feel that is not
the case any longer. I got involved in the debian perl group about two
years ago and felt immediately like I was part of a team and could
make decisions and get software into debian that I was interested in.
The patience and professionalism of the members of the debian-perl
team was the reason that I could participate so quickly, even when my
work needed improvement.
I'm not a DD. What does it take to begin helping out with random
tasks in the Debian Perl group?
The first big step is your email that you sent, the second is lurking
on the IRC channel - you'll see the various repository bots posting
commits from the svn repo and you'll get an idea of what is being done
and how people do it. Look at the Package Entropy Tracker as well: http://pkg-perl.alioth.debian.org/cgi-bin/pet.cgi
I've been writing in Perl since sometime around 1996. I've created
several modules on the CPAN [0]. This includes the Linux::APT module
[1] (I'd think there is already a nice module for this, but I don't
know about it and it doesn't seem to exist on the CPAN). I also
maintain the Win32::WindowsUpdate module [2], which is used (alongside
Linux::APT) extensively in our in-development perl-based distributed
computer management system.
Cool, sound like you have a lot of useful knowledge already. One of
the main tools is dh-make-perl as you may already know. I suspect the
team would welcome help with that as well as keeping the packages bug
free.
I have been using Debian almost exclusively since Sarge (but started
learning and experimenting since Woody). I've been creating my own
packages for internal distribution for the last few years in our
company-wide repository. I don't promise that those packages are 100%
correct on policy, but they seem to pass lintian checks just fine,
except for a few intentional failures (copyright, changelog, some
overly-restricted file permissions). I used to maintain an unofficial
LogMeIn Hamachi package (for a couple of years, even though we stopped
using it ourselves quite awhile back, but discontinued last month due
to lack of interested users).
I don't have a specific interest other than to help out with the Perl
group. I'm willing to take on some tasks to become familiar with the
process and would be happy to move into a more responsible role when I
am sure I know what's going on and how to go about doing things with
the group. I would like to get to the point where I can (in addition
to general helping-out) maintain packages related to my CPAN-released
modules as well as parts (or all) of my company's computer management
system (much is GPL; might GPL the whole thing, hopefully).
Thanks,
Dusty
As you can see from the responses you've already received, there are
some friendly and effective members of the debian perl group. We
generally get along well and I consider these folks my friends. I
think you'll find this a very pleasant place to get some work done.
Welcome!
Jeremiah
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