Obey Arthur Liu wrote:
> References=20080319015601.GH3506 at freenetproject.org
> In-Reply-To=20080319015601.GH3506 at freenetproject.org
>
> [Sorry if I broke a mailing-list reference chain, I wasn't subscribed,
> so can't just reply and keep the References: fields, Thunderbird won't
> take Lurker's extended mailto: tags and handcrafting a SMTP request
> might just be overkill... ]
>
> I didn't know about this mail until after my discussion with Nextgen,
> but I'll reply to it anyway. We've discussed various problems arising
> from the packaging and solutions to them.
>
>
>> * arthur@??? <arthur@???> [2008-03-19 00:15:58]:
>> /
>>
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> I'm a french student of computer science at ENSIMAG[1]. I am looking
>>>
>> for
>>
>>> your feeling
>>> on my proposal for working in your organization as part of the Google
>>> Summer of Code.
>>>
>>> I have been using the Freenet software for various reasons for a
>>>
>> long time
>>
>>> and I find
>>> it to be a very interesting endeavour, although not easy to setup./
>>>
>> Well, any suggestion on how to improve it would be welcome.
>> /
>>
>>> It is also not very straightforward to use on the long term/
>>>
>> What do you mean here ? do you have any specific example in mind ?
>> /
>> /
>>
> Making it work correctly in a multi-user system is not straightforward
> for exemple. You have to run it manually so there's no deamon
> monitoring.. That kind of stuff. Freenet itself is fine. It's just that
> installing binaries /opt style to ~/ is not really a perfect solution.
>
>> /> and redistribute under Linux, especially with
>>
>>> distributions which enforce high levels of good practice and standard
>>> conformance like
>>> the Debian-based distributions./
>>>
>> Agreed, we will need to provide packages at some point.
>> /
>>
>>> I am very interested by your project idea to overhaul the installation
>>> packages. A way to automatize the installation and ref gathering
>>>
>> process/
>>
>> Huh ? When did you last try freenet ? The bootstrapping code has been
>> implemented a while ago...
>>
> I was thinking about the IRC bot, although it may or may not be an usage
> to generalize.
>
refbot.py was obsoleted when #freenet-refs was shutdown some months ago.
>> /
>>
>>> would be a very interesting
>>> task to me. It would also greatly lower the barrier of entry for less
>>> technically
>>> minded users as the Tor project achieved in its distinct field.
>>>
>>> I am a long time Linux user and sysadmin and now have a fairly good
>>> experience with
>>> Linux packaging. I have made packages for private deployment of custom
>>> software on
>>> Linux servers. I am also currently working on a large multiple
>>> distributions packaging
>>> project for Oberthur Card Systems as part of work done through my
>>>
>> school's
>>
>>> Junior
>>> Enterprise[2]. I have access to a large range of architectures and
>>> operating systems
>>> with my schools computer labs.
>>> I have experience with navigating around fairly large C/C++ codebases,
>>> including as
>>> part of packaging work.
>>> /
>>>
>> Freenet is written in java and that's part of why it's hard to package
>> properly. Do you have any experience with java packaging?
>>
> Sorry about the faux-pas, I don't really know why I still wrote that
> after doing research on java apps .deb packaging. Never packaged
> primarily java apps to be honest, but I dug up a lot of useful
> documentation and interesting tools to bridge cdbs to ant. I am
> confident that something is workable to automate the .deb building
> process in extension of the current building tools.
>
>> /
>>
>>> For peculiar reasons, I have not done a lot of packaging work for free
>>> software and
>>> I'd gladly reuse my experience for public interest./
>>>
>> I am not sure I would have mentioned that if I were you. Open-source
>> contribution is more a matter of faith than a way of making money. If
>> your main reason to take part into GSoC is money, you are likely to be
>> disappointed.
>>
> Seems like there was a misunderstanding. My point was that I did a lot
> of things with and around free software but could not so far
> redistribute it, either because of software being only of private
> usefulness or because it happened to be with closed source software. I'd
> gladly rather do something that could benefit free software even if it
> didn't involve monetary retribution. So it's really more of a matter of
> faith. I realize that the Google SoC involves a 'stipend' (what an
> interesting choice of wording) but I do it really more for the
> "internship"-like experience and with the plan to stay inside the
> project and and the whole free software movement.
> I hope I dissipated any misunderstanding.
>
>> /
>>
>>> I'm looking forward to any advice about this proposal and am
>>>
>> available for
>>
>>> more
>>> details, including schedule.
>>> /
>>>
>> I suggest you state more clearly what the deliverables of your work
>> will be. How far are you planning to go? Which distributions are you
>> planning to build packages for? Deb. based ones only or are you
>> considering RPM based ones as well? Will you write the server-side
>> scripts needed to maintain mirrors?
>>
> Considering the discussion on IRC a little earlier with Nextgen, I'd
> deliver the whole chain from .deb packages to server-side scripts
> altough it would depend on the solution we would ultimately select.
> I haven't reviewed in detail the release workflow of freenet (didn't
> find it on svn, is it done manually ?) but I'm confident I can work out
> something that can integrate with the current workflow.
>
> The packaging of Freenet is challenging as far as packages go but
> challenges are what keep curious minds going.
>
> I will discuss it further with Nextgen or otherwise as best appropriate.
>
> Regards to the whole team.
>
> Obey Arthur Liu.
>
> PS.: You kept me awake shuffling through your code until 6am :p
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