[maemo-developers] Repositories mess: conclusions and actions

[From: Ed Bartosh]

On Mon, 2007-11-12 at 13:49 +0000, ext Graham Cobb wrote:
> On Monday 12 November 2007 12:40:42 Ed Bartosh wrote:
> > In this case I'd suggest to put both libraries to extras-devel and
> > tested for upgradeability together with applications. If some issues
> > will be found bug will be failed and hopefully fixed. Fixed library will
> > be uploaded to extras-devel and later to extras. Case solved.
> > I understand that this wouldn't work in 100% cases. But it's better than
> > force developers to build against old libraries. New libraries usually
> > bring not only bugs but also useful fixes and it might be that some
> > applications can't go to extras if they don't use new libraries.
> 
> So, I think that what you are suggesting is that Nokia effectively "Beta test" 
> the new release using extras-devel (or maybe some other repos specifically 
> for the task) so that developers can rebuild and test that installing their 
> applications don't cause the sort of problem I have described.
> That would probably be an effective compromise that would give the advantages 
> of bringing the latest libraries into use as quickly as possible while 
> minimising risk.  I like that solution, if Nokia agrees.
> 
Of course it would be nice if Nokia does something like that, but my
suggestion wasn't about Nokia, it was about developers, who use
extras-devel. I'm not speaking here as a Nokia employee, but just as
member of couple of garage projects.

> From a strict support point of view, of course, anyone who installs an 
> application from extras and finds it breaks a Nokia application is on their 
> own anyway.  But it would be good to minimise the risk of such problems, 
> particularly with applications installed from the extras repos.
> 
Exactly. And extras-devel can reduce this risk if developers would use
it and test packages taken from it. Some issues could be found ealier
than they will go to extras and user devices.

-- 
Ed Bartosh <eduard.bartosh at nokia.com>
Nokia-M/Helsinki