Hi,
I adopted the Yorick package in 2006. Yorick is an interpreted
language well suited for number crunching, scientific data reduction
and analysis, and production of of scientific plots for publication.
The package was in a bad shape when I started working on it, because
the former maintainer (also upstream) had seen his key laps and did
not manage to get a new key signed by other DDs. I completely re-
packaged the software from the ground up (new upstream with major
changes) and started looking for a sponsor.
That has been the though part. Yorick is not used by that many
people, although it is cherished by the professionals who use it
daily in the few institutions where it's installed. It looks like
absolutely no DD had ever heard of it. So for a long time no sponsor
looked seriously into my RFS, because either they didn't care, or
they didn't feel able to review the package properly (and
efficiently). I certainly don't blame them for that, but it's been
tiresome contacting every single DD I was in contact with for some
reason and sending pings on debian-mentors and debian-mentors.
Finally, Christoph Haas was kind enough to look into my RFS and test
the package. I'm guessing he tested me as much of the package, to
decide whether he could trust me for the bits he didn't understand or
was unable to test.
Once this contact was established, everything went fine, really. This
new version of Yorick is plug-in capable, so I packaged many plug-ins
that Christoph agreed on sponsoring. I feel that by my work, I made
Yorick a better software and Debian a better distribution, because
it's so much easier now to use the many tools that come with or use
Yorick than it was before I did this work. Of course I certainly
can't take all the credit, since everything was done in tight contact
with upstream (mostly David Munro) and the maintainer(s) for the
other distribs (mostly François Rigaut).
As my Yorick "package" grew into a full subsystem, I had to decide on
an informal policy for myself (now formalised in a yorick-policy
document in yorick-dev). Inevitably, this policy and the tools I
developed to manage my packages (dh_installyorick, update-yorickdoc)
evolved and I had to make transitions which involved the whole
subsystem, and I was getting uneasy with asking Christoph to do the
many uploads. (Well, it was perhaps not that many, but I knew
Christoph had other packages as well, of his own or in sponsorship).
I then thought I should enter AM, but he discouraged me, saying that
he would not sponsor to DD someone with little more involvement than
maintaining packages (and I can understand that). But he did sponsor
me as a DM, which is what I really needed and reflects the
involvement I feel like giving to Debian right now. I may choose to
give more later, but like everyone else, I have a day job, family,
friends, sports etc.
Best regards, Thibaut.
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