[maemo-community] Periodic cleanup of Extras-Devel?

[From: Graham Cobb]

On Thursday 14 January 2010 19:13:33 Thomas Waelti wrote:
> (I don't know if this rather be on maemo-develop or community)

The discussion needs to move to -developers before any actions are taken.  
Many developers do not read -community.

> What do you guys think about a periodic (automated?) cleanup of the
> extras-devel repository? IMHO something like 60 days should be enough, then
> a package shall either be promoted or updated.

I disagree.  I don't see -devel as just a temporary repository for things 
which will either be promoted or updated.  I see it as also a semi-permanent 
repository for things which are either not good enough or don't have enough 
community interest to be promoted.

If I create a niche application that (literally) less than 10 people in the 
world will use (I have one of these -- it works with a website that my 
friends and I use for managing joint holidays and other things) why shouldn't 
I put it in extras-devel and leave it there for my, and my friends', 
convenience?  Otherwise I have to create a private repository to put it in.  
Same for an app I might create for a local group or a small company.

Or, if I partially implement something which never reaches the stage of being 
good enough for anyone else to use, but where the code might be useful for 
someone else in the future, why shouldn't it be in extras-devel where someone 
can re-use it or even take it over?  Particularly if the interesting part of 
the code has been put in a library.

And 60 days might seem like a long time to some people on this list but for 
others of us it is nothing!  I was away travelling on business for the whole 
of the last three months of last year -- the few weekends I spent in the UK 
were spent with my wife, not hacking, so nothing happened on **any** of my 
projects for at least 90 days!  1 year is a more reasonable measure of 
inactivity.

A real example is something like my tinc package in earlier Maemo releases.  
There are very few people in the world who use tinc and only a small number 
use it on Maemo.  I would not want to promote it to extras because it is not 
something that people should stumble on and try to use.  But I do want it 
available for the small number of people who use tinc (who are all reasonably 
technical or can follow careful instructions).

I do agree with removing obsolete versions from extras-devel, however.  And I 
wouldn't object to an email to a maintainer to remind them of a package which 
has not changed for a year.

Graham