[fedora-java] packaging lessons from FUDCon hackfest?

[Andrew Overholt]

Hi,

* Karsten 'quaid' Wade <kwade at redhat.com> [2008-06-25 10:54]:
> Andrew, Tom -- where there any insights, lessons, ideas, or other
> outfalls from that work with Lee?  

Well, the process we went through was quite simple, actually:  list the
software they were using (in this case it was find all the JARs), determine
where it came from, and see if it was already packaged.  Moving applications
onto newer version of libraries so that we're only ever shipping one will
always be a challenge for ISVs since they're often using some version that
they imported into their tree at some point in the past.  This is one obvious
difference between ISV packaging and distribution packaging.  If we get more
ISVs actually developing _on_ Fedora and more up-to-date dependencies, we may
be able to help bring everyone's dependencies forward.

> * ISV-specific lessons, tips, etc. ==> target wiki/SIGs/ISV

I really wish we had video-taped Tom and Lee talking.  At the beginning of
the conversation Lee was unaware of the benefits of being a part of the
distribution and was wary of relying on dependencies outside of their direct
control; by the end of the conversation, he was fully in agreement of the
benefits of being a part of the distribution :)  Tom:  perhaps you could
write up some of the common arguments by ISVs and the Free Software /
distribution POV for each of them?

Andrew