Re: [gentoo-dev] RFC: Project proposal -- maintainer-wanted

[AllenJB]

Mart Raudsepp wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I have had this project in my mind for a while, so it's about time to
> get it out there, as to see if feedback finds it a good one - and if
> that is so, if there are people who want to make it happen.
> It is worded as a hypothetical project description for the purpose of
> the text perhaps being a draft for the projects official description. So
> in the following text instead of terms like "this project would be" I'm
> purposely using terms like "this project is", as while writing it, it
> got quickly very awkward writing "would be" and such all the time.
> Please take it still as a proposal to be judged, commented, improved,
> etc etc. And well, do that commenting and improving and volunteering ;)
>
>
> Project maintainer-wanted
> =========================
>
> Abstract:
> There are currently quite some package requests (over 3000) languishing
> on bugzilla waiting for a developer or team to get interested and
> package it in the official gentoo-x86 portage tree. However in quite
> some cases that might not happen for quite a while even with very
> popular packages desired by users. The purpose of the maintainer-wanted
> project is to get as many of such packages to the official tree as
> possible as a stopgap solution.
>
> <SNIP>
>
> ----
>
> Discuss! :)
>
> Mart Raudsepp
> Gentoo Developer
> Mail: leio@g.o
> Weblog: http://planet.gentoo.org/developers/leio

So, to solve the problem of lack of manpower / interest causing packages 
not to be added to the tree, Gentoo will create a dedicated project to 
shove as many of these packages into the tree as possible?

In my opinion, you've failed to solve the real problem:
Where is the manpower and interest for this project going to come from?

All that's going to happen is Gentoo will have many many buggy and out 
of date packages in the MAIN TREE. Exactly where they shouldn't be. You 
claim quality won't be sacrificed, but I simply can't see this without 
any attempt to solve the manpower issues first.

Isn't the purpose of this project already somewhat covered by Sunrise? 
If developers are interested in shoving packages without a maintainer 
into a tree (while not retaining quite the same level of responsibility 
for them), can't they already do it there? A dedicated overlay which is 
already monitored, but packages are not guaranteed to be as highly 
maintained as those in the main tree (from my point of view of what 
Sunrise is)

Proxy maintenance is already available via going directly to interested 
developers / projects or via the Sunrise overlay.

As a user I would not like to see Gentoo pursue this policy. It's going 
to create a situation where I can't trust that the packages in the main 
tree are maintained to the level I expect.

To my knowledge, a list of maintainer-wanted bugs can already be easily 
generated using Bugzilla's search feature. While some sort of more 
organized format may possibly increase uptake of maintainer-wanted 
packages, I'm dubious as to how much compared to the amount of effort 
required to create it.

Summary: I believe that this project will create problems, not solve them.

Gentoo should be looking at ways to encourage user contributions to 
Sunrise and proxy maintainership. In my opinion this would include more 
publicizing of these avenues - for example, bring back the newsletter 
and start features on Gentoo projects (who they are, what they do, 
roadmap, help needed - basically the same as the status reports that 
occasionally go to -devel), new developer profiles (again, instead of 
these only going to -devel) and proxy maintainership / Sunrise (latest 
additions, moves to main tree).

While the existing docs are quite good, perhaps look at how the 
documentation on creating packages can be improved (perhaps start with a 
basic "how to" on creating a simple ebuild, putting it in a local 
overlay and manifesting it).

(Side note: I've started a very small project of putting up the Project 
Status summaries on to the wiki[1], linked from the forums[4] and a 
blog[2] post on Planet Larry[3] - it's not much, but it's a start that I 
hope to build on in the future)

[1] http://en.gentoo-wiki.com/wiki/Projects_Status
[2] http://allenjb.me.uk
[3] http://planet.larrythecow.org
[4] http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-763205.html

I think Gentoo could be doing more to reach out to users who may wish to 
contribute rather than just waiting for them to come to them. While many 
probably do read Planet Gentoo and some will sign up to -devel if they 
are so inclined, I don't think these methods are as good as actively 
reaching out to users on the forums and newsletter.

With regards to the forums, I realize many developer choose not to spend 
time there because of their lack of free time, but is there anything 
that could be done to improve this situation? Perhaps creating a 
dedicated forum for package development (and splitting up "Portage & 
Programming" generally - I personally think it's too much of a 
catch-all). What about a forum setup that better resembles the project 
setup so that individual projects can more easily find queries that are 
likely to affect them?


AllenJB