Re: Bug#172436: Is it OK for the new policy wording to be a SHOULD?
On Tue, 29 Apr 2008 22:07:05 -0700, Russ Allbery <rra@debian.org> said:
> Manoj Srivastava <srivasta@debian.org> writes:
>> On Mon, 28 Apr 2008 09:39:21 -0700, Russ Allbery <rra@debian.org>
>> said:
>>> Joey had reported at the time that most programs in Debian had moved
>>> to using sensible-browser or honoring BROWSER, but that was some
>>> time ago and the archive has moved on since then. I'm not sure
>>> (outside of the desktop environments, which have their own way of
>>> handling this) how many of the random programs in Debian use BROWSER
>>> (or even a good way of checking).
>> Well, we can make this a recommendation, with a warning in a footnote
>> that this directive will become a should when lenny is released, and
>> make the same not in the upgrading checklist.
> The current Policy document defines "should" and "recommended" to mean
> the same thing (this sort of surprised me too). We don't really have
> a lower level of dictate than "should" right now ("may" means that
> it's really entirely at the maintainer's discretion).
Well, I think we ought to go with recommend/may, and use the
footnote to say that it will become should/recommend forthwith, and
people should take note.
So yes, it is currently discretionary, but that is only because
we do not know the impact of this directive, but as soon as we do, or
if sufficient time passes for people to have had a look at upgrading
checklist and had time to make the changes, it will harden as a
requirement.
I would prefer a slower adoption, with a time limit of, say, 6
months, than a change that makes an unknown number of packages insta
buggy.
Doing the latter is like an off screen breath attack by a hand
druj or undead beholder. We should give the six months for developers
to move on-screen with the beastie.
manoj
who hates insta deaths by AMHD's
--
Save the whales. Collect the whole set.
Manoj Srivastava <srivasta@debian.org> <http://www.debian.org/~srivasta/>
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