Re: Packaging edu software (was: Re: [seul-edu] [Fwd: Computers in the classroom])

[Ben Armstrong <synrg@sanctuary.nslug.ns.ca>]

On Thu, 28 Sep 2000, Chris Ellec wrote:
> They have the same problem on debian-jr, plus the fact that they have to
> "sponsor" packages to go into Debian.

Well, the sponsorship program is really just a workaround for the
new maintainer queue backlog.  Now that the queue is (gradually) being
cleared, I hope it will be easier for new maintainers to join Debian-Jr.

> > Perhaps Mandrake or ofset or osef would like to offer financial
> > incentives?  Chris: is there a list somewhere of those programs that need
> > to be packaged and the status of their packaging? Can we get debian-jr
> > in on this too?
> 
> Here is an out of date table I made a few months ago:
> ftp://ftp.linuxforkids.com/support/table.html
> 
> This was for the version 1.0 of the CD. I never got around to update it
> or fill in the holes.

Debian-Jr has also made their own very incomplete, very out-of-date lists
at http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-jr (and the pages are broken, too,
and due to the recent cvs outage, have remained unfixable for some time).
I'd rather see a more centralized, distro-neutral list where Debian-Jr's
packaging status is indicated in one column of the list.  Basically, it
would just be a search link back to the Debian BTS (Bug Tracking System)
so nothing would need to be hand-maintained.  Now that our WNPP (Work
Needed and Prospective Packages) list is maintained in the BTS, it should
be a simple search query against the WNPP to find any RFP, ITP, or RFS
(Request for Package, Intent to Package, Request for Sponsor, respectively)
for the package name.  The only glitch is that different people might call
the same package by different names.  Any such "TODO" list needs to
account for that in a generalized (i.e. distro-neutral) way. 

I'm looking at the WNPP listing now in the BTS.  It is not obvious to me
how to search this list.  A script may need to be written to grep the
page for the tags we are interested in.

In this page you can find these standard tags:
- ITP: (Intent to Package)
- ITO: (Intent to Orphan)
- RFA: (Request for Adoption)
- ITA: (Intent to Adopt)
- O: (Orphaned)
- W: (Withdrawn?)

I'll have to bug the maintainers of the BTS & the maintainers of the WNPP
(Debian QA group, I think) about how to filter thru the WNPP in the BTS
to get at the status of a proposed package directly.

Ben
-- 
    nSLUG       http://www.nslug.ns.ca      synrg@sanctuary.nslug.ns.ca
    Debian      http://www.debian.org       synrg@debian.org
[ pgp key fingerprint = 7F DA 09 4B BA 2C 0D E0  1B B1 31 ED C6 A9 39 4F ]
[ gpg key fingerprint = 395C F3A4 35D3 D247 1387  2D9E 5A94 F3CA 0B27 13C8 ]