[arch-dev-public] Unannounced mass edit of community PKGBUILDs

[Alexander Rødseth]

Hello Xyne,


2012/10/25 Xyne <xyne at archlinux.ca>:
> The lack of communication really is the key issue here. It is disrespectful to
> other packagers to "improve" their packages this way.

I disagree with you here, for two reasons. Firstly, I view the package
ownership as a collective ownership, where the package maintainers of
Arch Linux maintain all the packages together. At least for
[community]. This is reflected on how we help each other out on
TODO-lists, with bugs and with updates on packages. I certainly
wouldn't mind if someone fixed a problem with one of the PKGBUILDs I
maintain, or ran a script (that could easily be rolled back) that made
a series of minor positive changes (like converting every PKGBUILD in
[community] to UTF-8). Secondly, the changes were made on so many
packages, that it's hard to believe anyone would take it personally or
view the change as disrespectful. Of course, if people cling to their
packages, believe every man is an island and put much pride in their
package descriptions, I can understand why it can be perceived as
disrespectful, but I still insist that it is not.


> It is also dangerous to
> have one dev or TU who thinks he knows best and who will push sweeping changes
> without so much as a discussion about his intentions.

This is two different things. I don't think I know best, but I think I
had a good idea, and I knew the changes were both harmless and easy to
revert.
However, I agree that I should have communicated my intentions first.
For this, I have already apologized. But, I disagree that it's a big
deal, and I protest the use of a word like "dangerous" in this
context.


I won't comment on the stylistic aspects of PKGBUILDs you mention.


> Good intentions or not, I find the lack of consideration troubling.

I found your implication that my intentions may not have been good troubling...


-- 
Best regards,
 Alexander Rødseth
 Arch Linux Trusted User
 (xyproto on IRC, trontonic on AUR)