Wanted: Debian package vitality index

[Johan Walles <d92-jwa@nada.kth.se>]

Hi!

I would like to see a Freshmeat like vitality index for Debian
packages.  Basically, it is a measurement of how actively a package is
being maintained.  My intended use for it is that when there are
several packages providing the same functionality, I can try the most
actively maintained one first.

A package's index could be computed using the following factors:

a. How many bugs have been resolved by the current maintainer?
b. How long has the package been maintained by the current maintainer?
c. How many releases have the current maintainer made?
d. How long ago was it that the package was last updated by the current
  maintainer?

Those factors can be molded into a value thusly:

 vitality = ((a + 1) * b * c) / d

(a + 1) is because otherwise packages that haven't had any bugs fixed 
will all have zero vitality.  Also, I imagine the vitality as being
for a certain package with a certain maintainer; if a package switches
maintainer the vitality score should be reset (as the new maintainer
can be better / worse than the previous one).

Then, if you wish to have a linear measurement (instead of a quadratic
one as in the above formula), you could take the square root of the
above value.  I would recommend that, but it's hardly necessary.

Also, sorting the packages by vitality and saying how vital each
package is relative to others (as in "foo is the 645:th most vital
debian package") is probably more useful than "foo has a vitality of
123515.5435".

I would like to see the vitality score presented on all package web
pages, and in a separate list.  Also, I would like to see it in
dselect, but I realize that is an order of magnitude more complicated
so I'll hardly press the issue.

Unforturnately I have neither the time nor the skill to implement
this; I just hope to inspire somebody more cunning in the Debian arts
than me to do it.

The Freshmeat vitality index is described at
"http://freshmeat.net/faq/view/27/";.  Their vitality high score list
is at "http://freshmeat.net/stats/#vitality";.

  Cheers //Johan

-- 
Johan Walles                     WWW: http://www.student.nada.kth.se/~d92-jwa
Vultejusvägen 40                 Home: +46(8)371657    /   Great minds run   |
168 56 BROMMA                    GSM: +46(70)7106277   |  in great circles.  /