Re: Do we still value contributions?

[Steffen Möller <steffen_moeller@gmx.de>]

Hello,

We need to change something. I am just not exactly sure what this is.
Since software/workflows that we cover in Debian has increased in
complexity, we have come up with salsa. And we are increasingly
automating our testing. The package review has not yet seen any
methodological change but we expect it to just somehow keep up. And
complex software having some essential module waiting in new is -
unfortunate for everyone. Just to give you an example, I am packaging
for the same biological workflow since two or three years now. What
keeps me going? Read through
https://bcbio-nextgen.readthedocs.io/en/latest/ and ask yourself if you
think that should work on Debian - it works via conda on Debian, but
that is not what I meant. Why is this difficult? For many reasons. One
is that it uses software that is written in "nim", which is not so very
much known, yet. But this is also how Debian benefits from this effort
as a whole. A serial dependency on five or so non-biological modules it
has. And the first (nim-unicodeplus) sits silently in the New Queue
since 8 months.

Folks at conda do everything on github, including a peer review. For
most scientific packages I sense this to be just fine. Maybe we could
somehow stage our developments? A peer-reviewed (as in "get at least
three signatures" maybe?) instant upload into a "periphery" distribution
with a transition into a "as time permits" FTPmaster-scrutinized "main"
distribution?

Also, I find it somehow sad that FTPmasters after their ingenious
isolation of a problem that would then be fixed real easy don't have the
chance to just do the fix in salsa and have the package accepted from
there. The workflow now is that the package goes back to the uploading
developer who then fixes the typically trivial bit and the package
impose the same work on the FTPmasters again, often with a llooonngg
delay again. Instant trivial fixes would dramatically reduce the
rejection rate, I presume, and may also increase the fun to be an FTPmaster.

Best,
Steffen