Re: [gentoo-dev] Optimizing toe stepping

[William Hubbs]

On Thu, Nov 03, 2016 at 09:54:39AM -0400, Rich Freeman wrote:
> On Thu, Nov 3, 2016 at 9:45 AM, Ian Stakenvicius <axs@g.o> wrote:
> >
> >
> > Although metadata.xml is one way to do this, since it is more of a social thing than a technical one I think it might be better to wikify it instead -- each dev can list their "please fix my package" preferences in a per package or per anything-with-them-as-maintainer spec in one location.
> >
>
> I tend to think that metadata is the right place for a couple of reasons:
>
> 1.  Somebody who discovers an ebuild with an issue/etc is probably
> sitting right in the directory with the metadata file, so the
> information is readily at hand.
> 2.  If somebody was going to have to reach out to the maintainer, the
> metadata file would tell them who the maintainer is (both in terms of
> projects and individuals).
> 3.  The file could potentially contain package-specific maintenance
> information.  Sure, you can stick a page on a wiki that says "for
> rich0 in general feel free to touch anything, but be aware that mythtv
> upstream is picky about xyz, and be aware that the android sdk has
> issue xyz, ..."  For somebody with their fingers on a lot of packages
> you could end up either writing a book, or just leaving it all out
> which could result in people making the same mistakes over and over,
> or devs might just opt out of having others touch their stuff because
> it is too much of a PITA to explain it all.  With the metadata
> approach you only define package-level detail.  So, if one package is
> hands-off, then you simply state so or fail to give permission to
> touch it.  You could provide other background that is relevant to the
> specific package.

I'm adding Robin to this thread, because he wrote up a similar proposal
a while back. I don't remember what happened to it at the time, and I do
not have a link to it.

I am also in favor of the metadata approach.

William