Charles Plessy <ple...@debian.org> writes:
> Le Tue, Aug 04, 2009 at 09:51:26AM +0200, Paul Wise a écrit :
> > Perhaps you could talk to upstream about switching to either using
> > unified diffs for updates, tarballs for every release or a git/etc
> > repository?
>
> For sure, Debian can suggest them git, Ubuntu can suggest them bzr,
> Fedora can suggest them cvs, and Opensuze can suggest them svn.
Fine. Whichever one of those they choose, it can consume and produce
unified-diff-format patches.
> And for the format of the patch, I do not know what to tell them apart
> that unified diff is the preferred format of some Debian developers,
That's quite a misrepresentation; it's far wider than just “some Debian
developers” who prefer that format.
> and that we like that others use the formats that we prefer.
The point, rather, seems to be that unified-diff format is the de facto
standard format for exchanging patch information.
> I think that is a too weak argument, so unless there is a real flaw in
> the format used upstream, I will not bother them for a change.
The flaw is that patch information in any format other than unified-diff
format is nowhere near as portable.
> Much saner in my opinion is to have a toolchain that is liberal in
> what it accepts. (Hence the proposition to accept upstream ‘zip’
> archives).
This is in opposition to the ideal of having standard [0] formats for
data interchange, and choosing them on the basis of what is already
widely produced and accepted.
[0] “standard” in this usage necessarily including “freely-implemented”,
which doesn't disqualify the other options being discussed, but I
put this footnote in the hope of forestalling useless discussions
about proprietary formats.
--
\ “I moved into an all-electric house. I forgot and left the |
`\ porch light on all day. When I got home the front door wouldn't |
_o__) open.” —Steven Wright |
Ben Finney
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