Re: QA process was Re: RPM submission procedure

[Alan Cox <alan redhat com>]

On Fri, Jan 09, 2004 at 04:32:49PM -0500, Karl DeBisschop wrote:
> > Do you want 35 rival competing updated copies of perl that all
> > conflict ?
> 
> Not at all. In fact I don't really see how you read that from what I
> wrote, so I must be missing something or I must not have been clear.

The problem is with a lot of packages new versions are not always
compatible with old ones. So you might use a new library version and find
your app built with it won't run on another setup. So for that reason you
want people to know there is a definitive version of a package. There might
be other versions but you always want to know the definitive one.

> suggesting is that if the distros work from the idea of a reference spec
> that is somewhat distro agnostic, then the delevopr coordinates with the
> .deb packaging community, the rpm packaging community, and the ports
> community. That way, as packagers contribute thier feedback to the
> devlopers, it's more focused on what make the application better.

Ah now I understand where you are going. That makes complete sense and some
packages do come with reference spec files.

> If packagers from different distros eschew that tpe of cooperation, then
> the developer either sees silence or a "do things my way because that's
> our policy" from 20 different camps pulling the project in all different
> ways.

True.

Alan