Hi All, First off sorry if this sounds a little harsh, I am just trying to sort out the packages I created over the last six months.
You might have or have not noticed that I have spent a considerable amount of time creating Ubuntu packages for mspgcc to try and give some thing back. I have asked here for advice regarding the state of the source code but not had a response telling me exactly what I need to know to continue building packages. Its frustrating for me as I am trying to get more users to use mspgcc as well as make it easier for people to install the cross compiler. I use the cross compiler but without me having to dig deep into the source code and the internals of binutils, gcc, libc, gdb I would rather get the information I required direct from one of the developers. Is there a developer or advanced user who is willing to help me at this stage to get working Karmic packages? At the moment there is no support for Karmic as they dropped support for gcc3-4. I found the code in Bazaar and for the last few weeks tested this on a Karmic system until last night when the Bazaar resporatory disappered and taking down my build system with it. I make automatic builds each day to test the qualtity of code. So what is the state of the source code in Bazaar? and where did it go? Now I asked for advice if this code in Bazaar would be ready for packaging but never got a reply. I also asked if it was possible to sort out a release system and Rob Spanton agreed on this but nothing moved forward. As a packager it gives me a headache tracking my own revision numbers to a revision in Bazaar or CVS. People are using my packages and I can support the packages, but without help from the developers I can only do so much. I did not develop the cross compiler so when finding and fixing bugs in my packages I tend to see if it exists when I compiler the tool chain from source in a virtual machine or if its something wrong with my package. At the moment my packages are rebuilt each day, and I am hoping the patches I generate automatically will be used across all packages not just for Ubuntu so until we get a version number all the packages should contain the same code for a version number / revision. There are commits that break things from time to time so building them each day is a bad idea. We need a release schedule. I have been there with my packages and it requires human intervention as I have them automatically built but for testing I have to update my development machines packages versions then test them to ensure nothing broke before uploading them to Launchpad. So I am thinking that I will drop the packages soon as there is too many unanswered questions. I do not mind spending the time it just seems that there needs to be more documentation and non of the developers answered any of my questions when I posted them to the list. There is no point there been broken packages because I do not get the information I required to improve and release new version of the packages. It also causes users some headaches as people install a broken cross compiler. The documentation is poor. I was (still will do) going to do a new website, with packages, source packages, install documentation so every thing would be up to date and you would not have to spend hours trying to crawl through mailing list archives to get the information I required as well as I would try to push new devices were possible. So where do I go from here is there any one willing to spend some time via email going over the current state of the project with me? So we can get these packages up to date with the correct source code and support as many devices as possible. And try to get all the patches into one place. Thanks again, Adam
