[maemo-developers] Application Manager and Extras-devel: Dealing with unstable software

[From: gary liquid]

i do not think there is ever a perfect way for anything.
there are many points which intersect and by discussion we will find that
common ground :)

using the .install file to opt-in to a testing program is great,
opting back out is trickier, it would have to be something on the update
information screen itself.

there is also the problem with dependencies, but they could be handled in a
similar manner.

gary



On Tue, Nov 25, 2008 at 11:40 PM, Aniello Del Sorbo <anidel at gmail.com>wrote:

> This could be a way.
>
> One could also think about using a new keyword for the .install file, i.e.
> for ex. "stability_level = <level>", that can be set to:
>
> 0 "alpha" (marked red)
> 1 "beta" (marked yellow)
> 2  "stable" (marked green)
>
> And AM can be configured to show only levels from 0, from 1 or from 2
> (default).
>
> There are plenty of ways...
> Perhaps a mix of them hides the perfect solution.
>
> Aniello
>
>
> On Tue, Nov 25, 2008 at 11:22 PM, gary liquid <liquid at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> There should be a whitelist of applications to use from -devel with a
>> method to add or select packages from within it.
>>
>> If I *choose* to get involved in the xournal beta testing and want to
>> obtain it from -devel this should not effect the testing status of other
>> applications which I am not focusing upon nor testing.
>>
>> This way only xournal will be listed as coming from -devel and nothing
>> else.
>>
>> If at a later date I also wish to test out another cool application I
>> could simply add that as well, but at no time would I get unexpected
>> dangerous updates.
>>
>> gary (lcuk on #maemo)
>>
>> On Tue, Nov 25, 2008 at 11:04 PM, Aniello Del Sorbo <anidel at gmail.com>wrote:
>>
>>> Hi.
>>>
>>> There's no way to avoid developers setting up their own repositories if
>>> they want to do it for whatever
>>> reason they might have.
>>> Having a "temporary repository" flag or keyword in the install file,
>>> would help as these
>>> developers could use a .install file that adds the temporary
>>> repositories, install the application,
>>> then removes the repository.
>>>
>>> Also "external" repositories or application that comes from external
>>> ones, could be colored
>>> in yellow (warning), not installable ones (AM knows that) in red and
>>> installable ones (from known
>>> repositories) in green.
>>> An External repository can be anything that is not from Nokia and not
>>> from Maemo.
>>>
>>> I have my Xournal diablo alpha version in the Extras-devel since a long
>>> time now and I had many users
>>> that installed it as they found the update when another application
>>> required the extras-devel repository,
>>> added it and left it there.
>>>
>>> AM could also implement filters. Show All applications, Applications from
>>> known repositories, Applications
>>> from external repositories.
>>>
>>> Sorry for not exposing the ideas in a better way, too late and tired. :)
>>>
>>> Aniello
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Tue, Nov 25, 2008 at 10:16 PM, Simon Pickering <
>>> S.G.Pickering at bath.ac.uk> wrote:
>>>
>>>>
>>>> > the unstable repository--whatever, so the user decides (perhaps with
>>>> > the encouragement of some of their peers) to dive in, add the unstable
>>>> > repository and install the application.
>>>>
>>>> Use an install file to install the application in question? Assuming
>>>> the application needs libraries which are contained in the
>>>> extras-devel repo, you'd need to temporarily enable that repo. My
>>>> feeling is that the repos enabled/added as part of install files
>>>> should be disabled immediately after the app in question has been
>>>> added in any case, so I suggest this change is made to the way
>>>> Application Manager handles the install files.
>>>>
>>>> Would that achieve the desired goal? It would require that a list of
>>>> application install files are available (perhaps auto-generated from
>>>> the contents of the repo, or perhaps by the author in question?)
>>>>
>>>> > packages origin (color coding, a small icon) and notices might also
>>>> > help ("this package is unstable software, and may contain many
>>>> > significant bugs, are you sure you want to install it?"), or even some
>>>> > sort of apt pinning system to ignore certain updates.
>>>>
>>>> I also like the idea of flagging applications that come from somewhere
>>>> other than Extras, and I suppose it would be possible to have an
>>>> Updates section with Stable and Unstable candidates in it (or perhaps
>>>> allow updates to be sorted by their origin repo - and have Extras as
>>>> the default origin). But these are still more for power users, simply
>>>> disabling the repo immediately after use is imo a better bet for
>>>> unskilled "users".
>>>>
>>>> Cheers,
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Simon
>>>>
>>>>
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>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> anidel
>>>
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>>>
>>
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>>
>
>
> --
> anidel
>
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