[maemo-developers] [maemo-developers] extras repository

[From: Ferenc Szekely]

Hello,

I think it would be time to think about the extras repository a little
bit. Those who are not familiar with extras please find some info on the
ExtrasRepository [1] wiki page.

Those who are interested in extras and have a few minutes please read on:

We have launched this "service" during mistral (maemo 2.0) and the
primary goal was to offer a common place for developers to store and
redistribute their applications. The initial idea also included that we
would like that maemo hackers settle down with their projects at
garage.maemo.org.

We thought extras will help to spread the word about maemo as well as
help developers to reach a wider audience for their applications.

The idea was not too bad, I would say, but we have to revise it now.

Right now we reached a point when a single extras repository might not
be suitable to handle all the needs. We have several stable distros: 1.0
(compatible with IT OS2005); mistral (version 2.0; works with IT OS
2006), scirocco (version 2.1; works with IT OS 2006).
Then we have "sardine", which is meant for the leading edge application
framework components. It is supposed to help those who want to follow
the daily maemo development and want to keep their apps really up-to-date.
Carlos and his team is also working hard on an other repository that is
called herring [2]. The main intention here to integrate the stable
components of sardine into a single, self contained repository.

Here comes the dilemma: I am hacking on a maemo application using the
mistral (2.0) baseline and SDK. I'd like to wrap up my release and share
it with the rest of the world. Shall I upload it to extras? Well, sounds
good, since extras came with mistral. But what about other developers?
Will it compile using the scirocco SDK? How about sardine? I have no
clue, but unfortunately I have no time to test it now...

To cut the long story short I think we need to come up with a solution
that is logical, clear and sort of sustainable in the long run.

One idea is to have an "extras" component within each repository. The
current extras would move under mistral. Scirocco will have a separate
extras and sardine and perhaps herring will get one too.
This would require more work from the developers, or from the package
maintainers. They need to recompile their applications and upload them
to separate places.
Getting the upload rights will still require a garage account and the
invitation from the garage admins.

What is your opinion? We could discuss the real objectives of extras and
 then derived from those we could revise the repository structure and
also the policy regarding uploads etc etc.

Cheers,
Ferenc

[1] http://maemo.org/maemowiki/ExtrasRepository
[2] http://sardine.garage.maemo.org/about.html (bottom of page)