package reviews from beginners

David Timms dtimms at iinet.net.au
Fri Jul 13 13:12:42 UTC 2007


Hans de Goede wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> Welcome to the Fedora Community!
> 
> David Timms wrote:
>> Could I get some feedback on whether people feel it is appropriate for 
>> a person wanting to get sponsored for packaging to be providing 
>> non-official reviews on any random package ?
>>
>> Can I just "follow da rulez", pointing out the diversions, so that the 
>> packaging fits Fedora ?  [and state that I have no knowledge of the 
>> software being package ?]
>>
>> Or should I at minimum understand what the particular package 
>> /software /application is actually trying to do ?
>>
> 
> As a beginner I would advice you to only try and review programs which 
> you can test yourself. So for example something exotic like my cross 
> compiling packages for the gp2x handheld console would not be a good 
> idea. A simple cmdline / gui utility which you can actually give a quick 
> test run, would be a good idea.
> 
>> Should I only choose potential packages that are written in a language 
>> I have good knowledge of ?
>>
> 
> If you know a programming language, reviewing packages in that language 
> is a good idea, however being able to program is not a skill you must 
> have as a packager. Keep in mind when you don't know the programming 
> language that:
> -the generic guidelines were written with mostly C/C++ programs in mind
> -there are special interest groups (SIGs) for other languages with 
> additonal
>  guidelines see:
> http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/SIGs/#head-cd259dc1b2b40c7d270203b0be0d801986d33ec0 
> 
> 
>> Can a package submitter submit software written by themselves ?
> If that software is acceptable according to the legal guidelines (FOSS 
> license, no patents):
> http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Packaging/Guidelines#head-8be956fd12dbe4ae927e65c989e7e83b9fcc0b80 
> 
> 
>> Even if they can't, can't a patch I/someone add to a package do 
>> ~anything~ to a users system ?
> Yes, thats why:
> 1) You must first earn some trust
> 2) All commits to CVS get checked by various people and
>    checks are also done to ensure that the used source are identical to
>    upstream.
> 
> But in the end trust is the most important factor, that however doesn't 
> go for just the Fedora Project, why on earth do you think a small paper 
> someone printed $100 on is worth a couple of shopping carts filled with 
> food? Because you trust the system / person who printed the small paper. 
> If I were hungry and I could choose I know what I would choose :)
> 
>> For software that is open but may be only targeted for a narrow 
>> audience, or that has not had updates for some years, will a package 
>> be automatically rejected ?
>>
> 
> Nope, if you're interested in it, and can make it work against the 
> latest versions of the libs it needs, then thats fine.
OK, thanks Hans.

DaveT.




More information about the devel mailing list