I'm interested in adopting and maintaining the axkit source package (i. e., the AxKit XML application server and its relatives axkit-examples, axkit-language-htmldoc, and axkit-language-query). Debian has been my preferred distribution for several years and I've monkeyed with dpkg for internal purposes (backports, complicated kernel patch sets, etc.) AxKit looks like an area where I can perhaps contribute in time for the sarge release.
I am currently running AxKit on woody + backports of many packages on which it depends. If I understand correctly, I will need to build on sarge (or sid?) in order to produce a package fit for upload. Should I begin by setting up a sarge system, and if so, what is the best procedure currently? (I would default to x86 hardware since I have several handy, but I could also set up a Sparc if that's better.) Should I install woody and then upgrade, or should I try out the new debian-installer? And once I have a sarge system, are there packages I should pin before proceeding on to sid, or is it the other way around (upgrade only selected packages to sid)? I will also need a sponsor for an upload once I have built a new package. As there are currently no outstanding bugs and no new upstream releases, I plan to start by just changing the maintainer address, running the result through its paces using my axkit-based pages and the example code, and making it available to a sponsor for upload. The next step is probably to update the Standards-Version and polish away any warts revealed by lintian and linda. My read on the package is that, if it had a maintainer, it would propagate promptly into testing once perl 5.8.2 gets unstuck. If there are issues I'm missing, please let me know. Thanks in advance for any advice. - Michael
