Re: [Groff] Next release - maintainership

[Peter Schaffter]

On Wed, Nov 08, 2017, Gour wrote:
> On Wed, 27 Sep 2017 19:02:48 -0400
> Peter Schaffter  wrote:
> 
> Hello Peter,
> 
> I have visited your site and I'm thrilled with the beauty of your documents
> produced with groff/mom and must admit that mom is the primary reason I'm
> looking whether groff/mom can eliminate my need to depend on LyX/LaTeX or
> pursue path of ConTeXt...it seems groff does better job for paper than 
> texinfo,
> although not sure (yet) about Unicode/UTF-8 support...
> 
> > I would like to have put myself forward, but stretched retinas in
> > both eyes means I have to reduce the time I spend staring at the
> > monitor significantly.  So I'm both pleased about your decision and
> > somewhat relieved.
> 
> Does it and how much influences the state and further progress of mom package?

I'm still maintaining the mom package, fielding bug reports and
implementing feature requests.

-- 
Peter Schaffter
http://www.schaffter.ca

Re: [Groff] Next release - maintainership

[Gour]

On Wed, 27 Sep 2017 19:02:48 -0400
Peter Schaffter  wrote:

Hello Peter,

I have visited your site and I'm thrilled with the beauty of your documents
produced with groff/mom and must admit that mom is the primary reason I'm
looking whether groff/mom can eliminate my need to depend on LyX/LaTeX or
pursue path of ConTeXt...it seems groff does better job for paper than texinfo,
although not sure (yet) about Unicode/UTF-8 support...

> I would like to have put myself forward, but stretched retinas in
> both eyes means I have to reduce the time I spend staring at the
> monitor significantly.  So I'm both pleased about your decision and
> somewhat relieved.

Does it and how much influences the state and further progress of mom package?


Sincerely,
Gour

-- 
Everyone is forced to act helplessly according to the qualities
he has acquired from the modes of material nature; therefore no
one can refrain from doing something, not even for a moment.

Re: [Groff] Next release - maintainership

[Peter Schaffter]

Bertrand --

On Wed, Sep 27, 2017, Bertrand Garrigues wrote:
> OK then I volunteer to be a maintainer.  As said previously I won't be
> able to address all the problems submitted on the list, but I can still
> take in charge part of the work.

I, for one, welcome your taking on the role of maintainer.
Reviewing your group posts and commits over the last couple of years
amply demonstrates your suitability and your commitment to groff.

I would like to have put myself forward, but stretched retinas in
both eyes means I have to reduce the time I spend staring at the
monitor significantly.  So I'm both pleased about your decision and
somewhat relieved.

Following Werner, you're stepping into a big pair of shoes.
May the Force be with you. :)

-- 
Peter Schaffter
http://www.schaffter.ca

Re: [Groff] Next release - maintainership

[Bertrand Garrigues]

Hi Ted,

On Sat, Sep 16 2017 at 08:43:05 PM, Ted Harding  
wrote:
> So my suggestion would be that someone who knows their way
> around the organisation of gnu.oeg (and I find it confusing!)
> should undertake the task of establishing a real maintainer.
> This might require someone to explicitly volunteer.

OK then I volunteer to be a maintainer.  As said previously I won't be
able to address all the problems submitted on the list, but I can still
take in charge part of the work.


> Sorry to be unhelpful -- but I hope the above may be useful.
> I'm willing to try to do what I can to help this along.

I've discussed that with Werner: as he no longer has a maintainer status
but you still do, he thinks you should mail to maintain...@gnu.org to
clarify your current status and add me as a new maintainer.

Thanks,

Regards,

Bertrand Garrigues

Re: [Groff] Next release - maintainership

[Ted Harding]

[See in-line below]

On Sat, 2017-09-16 at 21:11 +0200, Bertrand Garrigues wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> I'm currently preparing the next release of groff (I still have to
> commit a few changes in the build system but I'm not far from making a
> candidate package).  In order to upload a tarball (into alpha.gnu.org
> and ftp.gnu.org) I mailed ftp-upl...@gnu.org so that they could give me
> access to these ftp site, but apparently not being the official
> maintainer is a problem, here is was they answered:
> 
> "The currently listed maintainer for groff is Ted Harding
> . Only him or an uploader nominated by him
> can have their key added to the ftp server. If he has stepped down as
> a maintainer this needs to be resolved prior to requesting a new
> uploader key to be added. Please discuss this within the project and
> request any changes in the maintainers to maintain...@gnu.org. When
> the new maintainer(s) are added to the files then they can request
> their key to be added to the ftp, alternatively they can nominate
> uploaders to have their keys added too."

My "maintainer" role (insofar as I possibly officially had one)
has always been marginal, especially compared with Werber's.
I think that the above reply may be either mistaken or out-of-date.
Visiting the groff web=page at gnu.org
  https://www.gnu.org/software/groff
shows:
[A]: User issues lead: Ted Harding.
[B]: Technical issues lead: Werner Lemberg.
but does not state that either of us is a maintainer (in the GNU
sense of the word).

Further, the following paragraph is in the panel at top right:

  GNU troff is looking for a maintainer. If you’re interested,
  please take a look at this general information about GNU
  packages and being a GNU maintainer, and then email
  maintain...@gnu.org with a bit about your background
  and particular interest in this package. Thanks. 

I don't know who wrote this (maybe Werner), but it indicates
that, in fact, groff lacks a maintainer! And I wonder where
(I couldn't track it down on the above web-page) the groff
maintainer[s] are/is listed.

So my suggestion would be that someone who knows their way
around the organisation of gnu.oeg (and I find it confusing!)
should undertake the task of establishing a real maintainer.
This might require someone to explicitly volunteer.

Sorry to be unhelpful -- but I hope the above may be useful.
I'm willing to try to do what I can to help this along.

Best wishes to all,
Ted.


> 
> I can take in charge part of the job of the maintainer: the build
> system, making release; I've also studied src/roff/troff source code and
> I'm planning to propose changes in `troff' to support Knuth-Plass
> paragraph formating algorithm (a long-term task and of course not for
> the next release).  But I'm not competent for questions/bugs on macro
> packages (there are currently lots of open bugs and patch requests for
> macro packages) and I can't be a technical lead like Werner, I could be
> at most a "co-maintainer".
> 
> So what should we do now?
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Bertrand Garrigues
>