[maemo-developers] Considering /opt and MyDocs in your packages

[From: David Greaves]

Matan Ziv-Av wrote:
> On Wed, 9 Sep 2009, David Greaves wrote:
> 
>> Matan Ziv-Av wrote:
>>> On Wed, 9 Sep 2009, Andrew Flegg wrote:
>>>>   * Use of /opt is perhaps now a QA requirement for Extras
>>>>   * Can we somehow add a /opt check into minimae/maemian? Is it
>>>>     possible, and is it sensible?
>>>
>>> Please recall that maemo5 is not the only maemo. Maemo4 is the latest
>>> availble for N800/N810 and maemo2 is the latest officailly available on
>>> 770. Many packages can compile from same source for all versions. Don't
>>> add artificial obstacles to force developers to make their packages
>>> incompatible with older versions.
>>
>> *cough*   Mer    *cough*
> 
> Call me when Mer is a reasonable replacement for OS2008 on N810. Until
> then, please don't try to fragment the community for no reason except for
> planned obsolescence.

Had I ranted on how it was essential to do something different to provide
definite support for Mer then that would have been a reasonable although
impolite response.
However since it was a gentle reminder that Mer *may* be on the horizon as yet
another environment that packagers may like to support from the same tarball
- and one that doesn't currently make use of /opt - then I really don't
understand it.

However I don't see much evidence that Nokia are considering the legacy
community here - over time application writers are likely to package for the
current platform and it's going to make supporting the N810 and older even
harder for the few of us that are working very, very hard on a way to extend the
useable life of those devices.
Now this /opt thing may not affect packaging for Maemo4 or Maemo2 or Mer - but
I'm not convinced that that is down to luck, not design.
(However if the decision to use /opt and the current proposed solution *does*
have "supporting Maemo4" as a requirement and not just a side-effect then I
apologise.)

Oh, and Matan, having potential users tell us to shut up and "call them when
it's ready" is frankly offensive. If you want your N810 (I assume) to have
something that runs apps from fremantle-extras then come and lend a hand.

> If you are going to use symlinks anyway, let the
> package installer make them, so the same package can be used for various
> system.
> 
> A lot of packages available for maemo are merely debian/ubuntu packages
> built in maemo environment. This /opt idea will reduce the amount of
> software available for maemo5 devices.
So despite the comment above you appear to be in agreement with my comments
supporting consistency with Debian a few mails above...

It certainly does have the potential to make porting more complex packages
harder than it needs to be.

David

-- 
"Don't worry, you'll be fine; I saw it work in a cartoon once..."