[maemo-community] Extras and Fremantle

[From: Jeremiah Foster]

On Mar 6, 2009, at 9:47 PM, Graham Cobb wrote:
>
> On Tuesday 03 March 2009 12:28:26 Quim Gil wrote:
>> We could even consider mirroring the Debian scheme:
>>
>> - extras-experimental (OPTIONAL): very easy upload a package but very
>> difficult for a user to find/download/install anything from there
>> accidentally. Main goal: get rid of the 1001 repos and the stand  
>> alone
>> debs out there.
>>
>> - extras-devel = unstable (MANDATORY): upload and build on sources +
>> dependencies are satisfied. The upload can be done directly or as
>> promotions from experimental. Users shouldn't bother about this.  
>> Goal:
>> get a place where developers put software once they think it's  
>> ready for
>> users at a feature/completeness level and feedback is needed.
>>
>> - extras-testing ("AUTOMATIC"): A package gets automatically promoted
>> from unstable to testing after N days, N votes, N downloads, lack of
>> critical bugs, pass through automated testing or whatever is the  
>> defined
>> QA process. Goal: offer a repository for power users to try out fresh
>> software and provide real user feedback.
>>
>> - extras-stable ("AUTOMATIC"): A package gets automatically promoted
>> from testing to stable after going through the QA process again. If
>> blocker/critical bugs are found in a stable package then the  
>> maintainers
>> are given a period of time to fix them but if they don't then the
>> package might go through a demotion process to testing or elsewhere.
>
> I think this may be one too many repos:  I am not sure we really  
> need a
> distinction between "unstable" and "testing". Debian does because  
> they are
> trying to converge on a stable release (a set of packages which are  
> released
> and then not touched) -- and "testing" is the candidate set for  
> that.  We are
> not trying to create a release.

You have struck upon one of the key differences between debian and  
maemo; the idea of "stable" is different in both. Stable in debian  
means the OS has stabilized through public use, in maemo it means  
Nokia has stabilized it for public use. "Stable" for debian is the end  
of development, just some backports and security patches get added.  
Stable for maemo means that it is now able to take on extra  
development from the community. For example, fremantle has an SDK and  
autobuilder built by Nokia, not created by the community. That means  
that Nokia is really responsible for the testing / unstable phase of  
the software which in debian is publicly available from the time it is  
created. These two development models are fundamentally different.

> If we have an "experimental", to put the crap which just needs a home,
> the "testing" (extras-devel) repository should be a lot less "wild  
> west" than
> it is today and should be suitable for power users.

I agree, I think we should collapse extras-experimental and extras- 
devel into one repo. Then we have a process whereby we promote from  
extras-devel to extras-testing then to extras-stable.

Jeremiah