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

[From: tz]

First, I assume you mean before pushing it into the STABLE repository.

No.  Extras-Devel is for betas, unstable, and things which aren't
ready for the general user to access.

If I have something there I usually if not always leave a note to TURN
THE REPOSITORY OFF after grabbing my code or doing any updates.

Trying to recurse to extras-devel-devel extras-devel-devel-devel by
other names is not going to help.

If bleeding edge user is not willing to wait one or two weeks for the
software to be promoted to extras and is not willing to invest the
time and effort of dealing with active pre-release repositories
(consider MS service pack betas or Ubuntu alphas or nonstandard
updates) there is nothing reasonable to be done.

Extras-devel is already a safety system, and an effective one when
used properly.

The user has the options:
1. Wait until it is officially promoted to Extras
2. Learn to deal with having Extras-Devel active (maybe a FAQ or HOWTO
would help)
3. Blow themselves up.

On Tue, Nov 25, 2008 at 3:38 PM, Ryan Abel <rabelg5 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Let's say you've got a user, and this user wants to get to something
> shiny, but the only place this something shiny is available is from an
> unstable testing repository. Normally this unstable testing repository
> would not be the sort of place this user would venture into, but the
> application is only there because a few minor packaging issues have to
> be wrapped up (maybe the l10n is split up into a bunch of separate
> packages); or there's just a few more bugs they want to stomp out; or
> they want to give it a week or two of testing before they push it to
> 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.