alpha/beta software in Fedora 8?

[Christopher Aillon]

On 11/29/2007 10:23 AM, Matej Cepl wrote:
> On Wed, 28 Nov 2007 15:45:31 +0100, Christopher Aillon scripst:
> 
>> On 11/28/2007 01:55 PM, Jesse Keating wrote:
>>> On Wed, 28 Nov 2007 07:46:53 -0500
>>> "Tom \"spot\" Callaway" <tcallawa at redhat.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Well, I'm not sure how it can be considered perfect when it does not
>>>> begin to address the "alpha/beta" issue that you think is resolvable
>>>> with packaging policy.
>>> "In general, it is preferred if maintainers avoid releasing "alpha" or
>>> "beta" builds of packages into Fedora (both Rawhide and released
>>> updates).  However a package maintainer has the right to use their own
>>> discretion regarding this issue and may provide whatever (s)he sees fit
>>> for the user base.  Things to consider include the amount of testing an
>>> alpha or beta release has seen, the timeline to turn said alpha or beta
>>> into a stable release, the feature sets provided, or the bugs fixed.
>>> There may be other factors at play as well, which is why the person
>>> best suited to make such a decision is the package maintainer in
>>> question."
>> This would also work.  Just so a maintainer can figure out what general
>> path they should be following in a release.  /me likes.
> 
> I think this is the way to hell -- we will be writing long and longer 
> legalese which won't mean much more than "Don't be stupid and test your 
> packages".


If we want to empower maintainers to be able to MAKE (good) decisions, 
we MUST give them some guidelines.  Making decisions is the reason WHY 
we have maintainers.  Else, we could just script blindly following 
upstream.  And THAT would be real hell.

This is not trying to BIND[*] maintainers to anything.  This is trying 
to EDUCATE as to what sorts of things they should be looking for so they 
are able to execute their judgements.  Call it guidelines, suggestions, 
hints, policy, whatever.  That's all pedantry.  But if we are able to 
give maintainers some help on making more decisions, it will be more 
rewarding for the maintainer and everyone involved.

[*] Pun not really intended, noticed on second reading of it.