[maemo-developers] maemo-optify, autobuilder & /opt

[From: Graham Cobb]

On Thursday 29 October 2009 08:08:20 Attila Csipa wrote:
> On Thursday 29 October 2009 07:07:14 Ed Bartosh wrote:
> > Then let's find the way to do it better.
>
> I believe that was the stance on the problem since day 1 :)
>
> > What I'm afraid of is that developers wouldn't like the approach to
> > change packages implicitly.
>
> Herein lies the root of the problem. We are beyond the phase of 'like'. We
> are closer to damage control, in terms of a lesser evil and an imperative
> to make the choice ASAP. 

That is the problem.  We have to do something now to fix the problem.

Telling developers they have to add a field to request optification and 
blocking them from Extras unless they have added it will just add to the 
people saying "Nokia have closed down Extras and are not letting people put 
their packages in -- so I have created my own, independent, 
non-corporate-controlled repository for true freedom".  Also, there are 
developers who know very little about packaging and want to know even less -- 
adding another thing they have to do is likely to cause at least some of them 
to give up and tell people to download their application from a website.

As a developer, of a set of packages with quite complex dependencies, I went 
into the meeting with the same position as you: I do not want the autobuilder 
messing with **my** package!  But during the discussion I was convinced that 
defaulting to auto-optifying was the right thing to do (with controls to turn 
it off I need to).  The position that really scared me was a proposal that 
the optification should happen at installation time!  At least with this 
proposal I can look at the deb, see what is being put where, install it in 
scratchbox and debug any problems.

I think if you had been there you would have been convinced that this is the 
right option as well.

It is also very easy for us to back out of or replace with a different 
solution if we need to.

Graham