Hi,
I know this reply is a bit late, but I think users (myself
included) would be much more inclined test if fink itself provided an
easier means to test. The main barriers to testing are:
1) You have to fool with something to use an unstable package (eg copy
some .info files, or edit the .conf)
2) If the package is very unstable, then you have to reinstall the stable
version of it, again having to fool with something, and then possibly
recompiling the original stable version (which can take hours, depending
on the package). (or am I wrong here??? - do you just need to fool with
stuff then use fink reinstall to get back the stable version, without
actually having to recompile it??)
If these two barriers were lifted, I think there would be a lot more user
testing and feedback. If you could:
fink try <package_name>
and it would see if there were a newer version in unstable, and compile
that one for you (honoring any dependencies on other unstable
packages) that would remove barrier no. 1. If you could then:
fink restore <package_name>
and it would replace the unstable version with the newest one (using the
original stable .deb file), that would remove barrier no.2. I can see
that dependencies would play a part in how this is done, but I'm sure the
easier and less painful it is to use unstable packages, the more feedback
you'll receive on them. Also, if list indicated which packages you had
installed unstable version of, that would also be useful,
Cheers,
Gavin
___________________________________________________________
Gavin Sherlock
Dept. of Genetics
Center for Clinical Sciences Research
269 Campus Drive,
Room 2255b,
Stanford,
CA 94305-5166
Tel: 650 498 6012
Fax: 650 723 7016
On Sun, 17 Mar 2002, Max Horn wrote:
> Dear Fink user,
>
>
> we, the Fink team, would like to make a new full Fink release in the
> near future. For this, we'd like to move as many package to stable as
> possible. But to be able to do so, we need *your* help! Under
> http://fink.sourceforge.net/pdb/testing.php, you can find a long list
> of packages which are in unstable, but not yet in stable. And it's a
> long list (over 550 packages).
>
>
> Please, look through this list. If you see packages you are using
> succesfully, please report them to the package maintainer, so that he
> can decide to move that package to stable. You can find out the email
> address of the maintainer by clicking on the link for each package;
> or alternatively, you can enter "fink info PACKAGE" to see the
> maintainer of any given package.
>
> Some package that would especially important to see in stable (so
> look for those first):
>
> aalib
> apache
> bash
> db3 / db3-bin / db3-doc / db3-shlibs
> db4 / db4-bin / db4-doc / db4-shlibs
> freetype2 / freetype2-shlibs
> gimp
> glib / glib-shlibs
> all gnome packages
> libmpeg
> mysql
> orbit
> qt3
> xfree86-base 4.2.0-4 and xfree86-rootless 4.2.0-2
>
>
> But don't limit yourself to these, *any* package is important! Just
> remember, Fink is a group effort. We can't do without your help!
>
>
> Thank you for helping,
>
> Max Horn
> Fink Lead Developer
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Fink-announce mailing list
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/fink-announce
>
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