Package: wnpp
Severity: wishlist
* Package name : vimoutliner
Version : 0.4.0 (or some more recent git commit...)
Upstream Author : Steve Litt <sl...@troubleshooters.com>,
Noel Henson <noelwhen...@gmail.com>
* URL : https://github.com/vimoutliner/vimoutliner
* License : mostly GPL-2 with some scripts under GPL-3
and some under BSD-3-clause
Programming Lang: Vim
(+ Perl, Python, Ruby, AWK, Javascript for
auxiliary scripts)
Description : script for building an outline editor on top of Vim
Vimoutliner provides commands for using the Vim text editor as an
outline editor, to organize text hierarchically into discrete
sections.
This package is really useful (I use it on a daily basis to manage
todo lists and the like...).
It has been [in Debian] for a long time, but it has been recently
[removed] from unstable and testing. I would be really really grateful
to anyone who volunteers to reintroduce it into Debian!
[in Debian]: <https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/vimoutliner>
[removed]:
<https://tracker.debian.org/news/1068373/removed-034pristine-93-from-unstable/>
The reasons for the removal are listed in the removal page.
In the following, I comment each of them:
* last MU in 2009
→ OK, this package (like any other!) needs to be properly maintained.
At least, it should be kept up-to-date with respect to upstream
releases... I hope whoever volunteers to reintroduce it into Debian
is willing to commit.
* last 3 uploads are NMUs
→ Likewise, bug reports should be dealt with, of course. From a quick
look at the BTS, it looks like the package does not receive a great
number of bug reports, anyway...
* last upstream release in 2014
→ Upstream does not release too often, which can mean less effort
is needed on the Debian package maintainer's side... The git
repository on github seems to anyway receive updates (in the form
of commits) from time to time, so I would not call this project
"dead upstream", just "relaxed upstream"...
* python2-only
→ This is the main issue to be fixed, as far as I can see. Upstream
needs to be persuaded to switch from Python2 to Python3. But the
good news is that Python seems to be used only for some auxiliary
converter scripts (just one in package version 0.3.4+pristine-9.3
included in Debian buster, some more in the latest upstream code
on github): these converter scripts are not essential for the
core functionality of the package and may even be temporarily
excluded from the Debian package, until ported to Python3...
* low popcon
→ This should not be in itself a reason to remove a package from
Debian, in my humble opinion. Just an aggravating factor, so
to speak...
I really hope that someone will soon step in and reintroduce the
package into Debian.
Many thanks to anyone willing to do so!
