The comps SIG is born and hiring

[Christian Iseli]

Hi folks,

First, a big thank you to all of you who took some time to take a look
at the comps files and add packages and drop me kind messages.

I know things are not completely clear to many people wrt the purpose
and usefulness of the comps files.  It's also not too clear exactly
what packages should appear in there.  Which also goes to say that
there is no way to write an automated tool that would determine which
packages should appear in there and either add them automatically or
send nagmails to their owners.

For all these reasons, it was decided during the last FESCo meeting to
create a new comps SIG, which purpose will be to:
 - clearly document why and what packages should go in comps
 - document and implement a way for maintainers to request new groups
 - periodically review the contents of the comps file to make sure all
   mentioned packages exist and are properly classified
 - periodically review all packages available in Extras and either ask
   their owners to add them in comps or simply add them in some cases

If you would like to help with any of these tasks, please head to
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Extras/SIGs/Comps
sign yourself up and pitch in.

<sales pitch>
comps is probably the first showcase a Fedora user will see: anaconda
(the Fedora installer) uses comps to present available packages to the
user.  Other package management GUI also make use of comps to let users
select package from software groups.

The "group" tag in spec files is on its way to become optional, and
might slowly fade into oblivion.

If you went to the trouble of packaging some software that you think
users will want to install on their machine, why not make it easy for
them to just select it from a group list ?  All you need to do is add
it to the comps file in the appropriate group...
</sales pitch>

Cheers,
					Christian