On 14 February 2013 20:29, Barry Warsaw <barry@python.org> wrote:
I look at the switch to dh_python2 as an example.
I don't think it's a particularly good example, though. Lots of packages continue to use the older helpers, and not due to a lack of time - attempts to move away from the deprecated helpers still seem to meet considerable resistance. That causes problems when newcomers don't want to learn deprecated packaging methods, and aren't allowed to update packages to use the recommended helper.
Back on the VCS question, I fear that the 'all or nothing' road will circle back to 'nothing' for a long time. I think that we should allow some packages to live in git without forcing a complete migration, so individual maintainers can use the VCS they're more comfortable with. Most open source programmers have at least a basic familiarity with both, so it shouldn't be such an obstacle to working on other packages.
We wouldn't be the only team doing this - Debian Games Team, for example, use both git and svn for packaging: http://wiki.debian.org/Games/VCS