Hi Russ, Russ Allbery wrote[1]:
> Every time I've tried to streamline the process, someone equally upset > rips me a new one for changing the Policy rules without consulting the > project sufficiently. The last time I raised the topic[2], I was told that what is stalling most policy bugs is a lack of patches and that changing the process would not help with that. It was a useful reply, but I don't think it got to the heart of the matter. Here is a rant and a question. Feel free to skip the rant if you're not in the mood. Rant ~~~~ See [*]. Question ~~~~~~~~ I'm happy to hear you have ideas for a smoother policy process. Could you suggest a few? Maybe we can batch them up and make a general resolution. :) Hope that helps, Jonathan [1] https://lists.debian.org/debian-mentors/2012/07/msg00037.html [2] https://lists.debian.org/debian-policy/2011/11/msg00099.html [*] Here are some conterpoints from someone who has occasionally written small patches to address policy bugs. - Uncertainty about the policy process leads to a stilted and uncertain discussion. For example, I would not mind writing a patch documenting the consensus from bug#678607 (which is about the requirement to list original authors in debian/copyright) but I have no idea what the consensus is. The conversation stopped for no good reason. - After a patch is written, it can sit for a long time afterward without being applied despite consensus. This takes away some of the reward of writing a patch. For example, I think there is a strong consensus behind bug#578597 (dpkg-buildflags is the interface for retrieving compiler flags in debian/rules) but even the proposed change to an example in bug#613046 has not been applied. Another example: there seems to be a strong consensus that symbols files are a part of the package format that we support and that they basically work as described in the patch from bug#571776. But nothing happens. In all these cases, if I understand correctly then nothing is happening because no one knows what the next step is. In most packages, that would be a situation for interested people to ask the maintainer what is needed next and for the maintainer and others to give guidance. The current policy process means that even the policy maintainers can wonder why a bug is stalled and there is no one to offer guidance. To put it another way: I don't think a lack of patches is the only problem. Sorry for the ramble. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-policy-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/20120708234212.GA12592@burratino
