On Thu, Jul 03, 2003 at 12:04:20PM +0200, Michele Alessandrini wrote: > Hi, I'm a happy debian user, I really estimate the huge work behind such a > magnificent project. I'd like to express a little doubt about policy (very > humble opinion): it seems like programs authors are considered like > "marginal" contributors.
I don't see this reflected anywhere in Debian. > Dselect description doesn't even report their info > or url, This is the case, since Debian users are encouraged to communicate with the authors through the Debian package maintainers. This has several advantages: * The Debian package maintainer can seed out any misconceptions on the users side that are caused by behavorial differences in Debian packages. * Bugs etc. that are present in the Debian package as well as the upstream package are also known to the Debian package maintainer. * The package maintainer will relieve the upstream maintainer from some of the burden of user support; often the maintainer will be able to handle user support questions him/herself. * The package maintainer knows the procedures of upstream maintenance, e.g. which mailing lists and e-mail aliases there are, where and how to report bugs, etc. Also, the upstream maintainers know the Debian maintainers and know, whom to contact in case of problems, etc. It is always possible to find contact information and the names of the authors of packages in the accompanying package documentation. In fact, this is often a more appropriate place for such information, since a simple control field could normally only list few information and not detailed information, e.g. about the bug tracking systems, or the available mailing lists. Also, many package description do already list the usptream homepage, and this may even become a control field in the future. (I would welcome that.) > and in debian policy they are called, 2 or 3 times, "upstream > authors", like if maintainers (largely mentioned) were the "main" authors. "upstream author" and "upstream maintainer" are just termini technici within Debian and do by no means imply that these authors are not the "main" authors. I did never understand it that way. It is important to stress the difference between Debian package maintainer and upstream maintainers. A term like "upstream maintainer" is reasonably clear and concise and it is not likely to be confused with the Debian maintainer. This is not the case with terms like "main author". (Which one? The main Debian package maintainer if there are multiple for a given package?) - Sebastian
