On spec file formatting/indentation (was: Re: rpms/fish/devel fish.spec,1.1,1.2)

[Michael Schwendt]

On Fri, 01 Jul 2005 17:15:11 +0200, Oliver Falk wrote:

> On 07/01/2005 04:59 PM, Ville Skyttä wrote:
> > On Fri, 2005-07-01 at 16:21 +0200, Oliver Falk wrote:
> >>And you are correct, it doesn't improve package quality, but specfile 
> >>readability. :-)
> > 
> > That's subjective.  Many people find the "indented" style more readable,
> > while others exactly the opposite.  As long as there's no policy, it is
> > up to the package _maintainer_ to decide, and _all others_ to respect.
> 
> My fault, ok? Could we stop discussing a few spaces and tabs, as they 
> are whitespaces and whitespaces are 'nothing', so we are discussing 
> 'nothing'. :-P
> 
> Don't get me wrong, I read and understood what you wrote! But we really 
> shouldn't discuss it too much...

We have to. We need to refresh things like this as they come up, since
they are not covered by packaging policies/guidelines yet (afaik). It may
become necessary to document a list of commonly encountered "need not fix"
things in addition to "must fix" and "should fix" items. Some of us have
made experience with the package QA procedures at fedora.us, where
sometimes the difference between "must fix" blocker criteria and
hints/suggestions was either not clear or non-existant, even when the
infamous "QA checklist" contained only around 17 items. The procedures and
processes at Fedora Extra are work in progress. We must ensure that the
"reviewing" remains doable for the majority of packagers/contributors and
that new contributors don't get a false impression of what is required and
what remains packager's freedom. The notion of "minor moderating spec
files" has come up in the past. "Indentation" and "spec template
compliance" are things which can annoy a new [or even long-time]
contributor easier than you would assume.

It's not a big issue afterall, but it is brought up regularly, which may
make all the new packagers wonder at which detail they need to adapt spec
file formatting.

-- 
Michael Schwendt <mschwendt at users.sf.net>
Fedora Core release 3 (Heidelberg) - Linux 2.6.11-1.35_FC3
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