On Thu, 3 Jul 2003 12:04:20 +0200 Michele Alessandrini <m.alessandrini@ea.univpm.it> wrote: > Hi, I'm a happy debian user, I really estimate the huge work behind such a > magnificent project. I'd like to express a little doubt about policy (very > humble opinion): it seems like programs authors are considered like > "marginal" contributors. Dselect description doesn't even report their info > or url, and in debian policy they are called, 2 or 3 times, "upstream > authors", like if maintainers (largely mentioned) were the "main" authors. > What about giving them more "dignity"? Which are the rapports between a > maintainer and the author, for example when deciding how to change the > software to conform to Debian system? I think what you notice is simply the result of tailoring the information to a particular audience. People reading Policy probably have a very realistic view of how much most upstream authors contribute, and simply referring to them as "upstream authors" is more than adequate. Similar to referring to Debian Developers as ... well, there you go. :) With respect to dselect and package descriptions and whatnot, I believe it would inconvenience users with an overabundance of not-particularily-useful information if the packaging frontends starting displaying the contents of AUTHORS or similar. (The "not-particularily-useful" categorization applying when somebody's browsing package lists to find a packages to install. The most common usage of package managers, I think, especially when you're viewing a package description :)
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