[maemo-developers] Software categories

[From: Daniel Stone]

On Wed, Aug 15, 2007 at 07:12:13PM +0300, Ed Bartosh wrote:
> On Wed, 2007-08-15 at 18:59 +0300, Daniel Stone wrote:
> > On Wed, Aug 15, 2007 at 06:55:54PM +0300, ext Ed Bartosh wrote:
> > > Thank you for the info, will look at it.
> > > Does it mean that we have to install sid if we want to use this? Hmm...
> > 
> > No, the functionality's been present for about six or seven years or so,
> > so it should be okay.
> > 
> Just read dpkg-scanpackages manpage. Format of override file contains
> package name. Does it mean that repository maintainer have to put every
> package there in order to override section?

Well, if you're using dpkg-scanpackages or apt-ftparchive, then the
long-winded answer is that you're currently using /dev/null as an
override file (that second argument), so it already allows incomplete
override files.  The short-winded answer is, no.  (But this is trivially
established by experiment.)

> > > It doesn't mean that we can't use bright new Debian approach in future,
> > > but now people already using this one.
> > 
> > Right.  It's not about having an instant 100% solution that magically
> > fixes every package, but means that any package imported from Debian in
> > future doesn't have to be forked, which seems like a win to me.
>
> Well, as far as I know only top level application packages are required
> to have 'User' in section, but most of them are forked anyway, because
> they use hildon libraries. Rest of packages could be taken as is if
> Debian would have armel architecture supported. So, what's the issue
> we're trying to solve?

My assertion -- and I take this is axiomatic -- is that every change we
have to make that can be trivially eliminated, should.  It means less
work for initial packaging (and, hopefully, people get the idea that
Debian exists and works just fine: no more 'look, I "ported" mutt',
which contains a tarball with ./configure && make having been run, on
Planet Maemo), less work for ongoing maintenance and merges, less work
for Debian to get our changes, and one less thing to forget when you're
trying to make your package work with Maemo.
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