[maemo-developers] Application in Extras-Devel OK? Promote it!

[From: Graham Cobb]

On Wednesday 02 July 2008 16:31:29 Niels Breet wrote:
> > installable on the tablet, tested by developer or, better, testers. The
> > fact that package is buildable is not enough to promote it to extras.
> >
> > I'm using extras-devel for all my maemo packages and sometimes I keep
> > packages in extras-devel for a long time. Just because I think they're
> > not ready for enduser or not enough tested yet.

I agree with this, of course.

> Maybe it would be a nice for the promotion interface to only allow
> promotion of a package when:
>
> 1. it has been tested by XX users and they have clicked on some OK link
> (or filled in a rating form)

I'm not convinced this should be a requirement.  However, I think that sort of 
feedback would be very useful for the developer considering whether it is 
time to promote their application.

In the case of GPE, for example, there is a small group of people who take the 
time to test bug fixes and releases and report problems (and many thanks to 
them!).  I would give much more weight to their views than to a count of the 
random people who have downloaded.  But knowing how many people have 
downloaded, and how they rate it, would still be a useful input.

On the other hand, if I consider another project like Xsisusb, there are very 
few people with the right hardware setup to use it!  Does that mean it should 
not be able to be promoted to Extras just because not many people are using 
it?

So, please add "maintaining counts of how many people have downloaded each 
version of each package in extras and in extras-devel" to the wishlist.  And 
some sort of easy to use feedback mechanism for people to rate things would 
be great as well.  But I don't think there is any need at the moment to 
implement a lock on promotion. 

Graham