[gentoo-dev] GLEP #15 - a gentoo script repository.

[Kurt Lieber]

I missed the original thread on this GLEP, so apologies for the delay in
responding.

For those who missed the original discussion as well, please see this
thread:

http://article.gmane.org/gmane.linux.gentoo.devel/12750

So, let me start by saying that I support the idea behind this GLEP, though
I would like to see some modifications made and some questions answered
before approving it.

Some comments in no particular order:

* I dislike the idea of making this a plain page.  For it to be effective,
  I think it needs to have some searching and filtering capabilities
  straight away.

  One thing I'm not willing to do is simply throw a page up there and let
  people start contributing scripts.  This will *quickly* become
  unmanageable and unusable.  If we're going to do this, we need to design
  it correctly from the start.
  
* Rather than including this in another project page, such as tools or
  base, I'd rather see this as a standalone application, personally.  Say,
  scripts.gentoo.org.  This is largely a personal preference and I'm open
  to discussing it, however.  I just feel that this doesn't fit neatly into
  the mandate of tools and/or base and it would see more use as a
  standalone app similar to the (now dead, but soon to be reborn)
  stats.gentoo.org.  Other projects could link to specific sections from
  their pages as they wished.

* "A scripts@g.o email alias would be setup and forwarded to the
  team that will accept and publish these scripts to the website."

  Who is this team?  This needs to be in place and functioning before this
  GLEP can be approved.

* In addition to being divided by task, this app also needs to be able to
  filter by language (python, shell, perl, etc.)  See the first bullet
  point.

* There need to be standards and guidelines on what is required to have a
  script be included in the repository.  Chief among these standards must
  be documentation about how the script works, what it does, any special
  requirements, etc.

* I would really, really like to see some sort of interactive application
  where users could make comments on various scripts.  For a perfect
  example of what I'm referring to, see PHP's documentaion:

  http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.date.php

  Specifically, the user contributed notes at the bottom.  IMO, I think
  this is the perfect interface for a scripts.gentoo.org type application.

* Who all is going to build this?  The folks behind the scripts@g.o
  alias?  Someone else?  

So, basically, I think the idea is great and am willing to support it from
an infrastructure perspective.  If there are people willing to devote the
elbow grease necessary to put this together, then great.  

--kurt