package EOL

[Paul]

Hi,

> So, my offering to unorphane Sodipodi seems to have raised a couple of 
> good questions.
> 
> When should a package be removed and considered no longer maintainable?

I would suggest the following:

1. If the package would fall under the legacy project and has been
orphaned up to that point (sodipodi would be an example)
2. If the package has been abandoned upstream and the only way to bring
it to a current FE would involve significant work (see below)
3. If the upstream has moved to a different version of (say) Java and to
import using the current gcj stack would require a significant amount of
work due to rewrite/backporting (see same thing below as for [2])

(2) and (3) come with the obvious caveat of "unless the new maintainer
doesn't mind either taking on the main package or doing the rewrites"

> How long without a release till considered inactive?

You can't. I know of quite a few packages that are stable. z88dk and
fuse-emulator are stable and it's been a while since the main branches
have been updated. Neither though are inactive.

> What lengths should someone go to, to confirm a project status?

Email the current maintainer seems good.

> Why Orphane a package that is considered EOL?

Some packages, though EOL, should be kept purely on the merit of how
good they are.

> I know FE as it stands does not have a policy on this, perhaps its worth 
> knocking out some overall guidelines for the wiki?

Sounds like a cunning plan!

TTFN

Paul
-- 
Computer sind Klimaanlagen sehr ähnlich: beide funktionieren, es sei
denn man öffnet die Fenster
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