I wonder if it might be useful to add another tree to the existing
stable and unstable ones. I envision a third tree, for packages that
have been submitted by non-core developers, but not yet reviewed so
they can get in the unstable tree.
The current process would work well if there were enough volunteer
resources to keep packages moving through the validation process, but
that isn't happening. I know that there are only a limited number of
core developers, who all have lives to lead, and their own packages
to maintain. Plus there has been a tremendous amount of work
required for the move to Tiger and GCC 4, and more work to come with
the the transition to Intel. The result has been that many packages
get stuck in the package tracker for months. I believe that many
people eventually get frustrated and stop submitting packages. This
is OK if the core developers want to have responsibility for every
package in fink, but I believe it is better to find a way to
encourage other people to maintain packages.
I don't hold out any hope that the existing volunteers will suddenly
find more hours in their day, so I believe we should make some sort
of fundamental change in the process. I propose that packages that
are submitted to the package tracker would automatically move to a
third tree, even more unstable than unstable. That would allow other
users to get these packages right away, if they chose to enable this
new tree. The packages would be moved to unstable if a core
developer ever finds a way to validate it.
I don't know what to call the new tree - I originally thought that
"testing" could work, but after looking at the way Debian does things
I think this would simply cause confusion. How about "kamikaze"?
That would certainly push the idea that people should only enable
this new tree if they were prepared for things to break.
I realize that many packages would never make it from the kamikaze
tree to unstable, as the current shortage of validators would not go
away. But we already have many packages that never make it from
unstable to stable, and that hasn't caused too much grief.
Kevin Horton
Ottawa, Canada
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