[arch-general] mandriva beat us to a new version

[Allan McRae]

On 30/07/10 11:23, mike rosset wrote:
> On Thu, Jul 29, 2010 at 5:06 PM, Allan McRae<allan at archlinux.org>  wrote:
>> On Thu, Jul 29, 2010 at 1:37 PM, Caleb Cushing<xenoterracide at gmail.com>
>>   wrote:
>>>
>>> Just so you know.... I volunteered to be a junior dev and was
>>> rejected. I have ~400
>>> http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?SeB=m&L=2&K=xenoterracide
>>> packages on the AUR. I file out of date packages on on Arch every day.
>>> I think I filed ALL the rebuild bugs (for perl- packages ) for 5.12.
>>> I've been running it for 3 months. I think I've done everything I
>>> /can/ to get this rolled out. The fact is the small, very small amount
>>> of work that has yet to be done... I can't do.
>>
>> The goal of Arch Linux is not to package things faster than everybody else.
>>   The goal of Arch is to make the distribution that the developers want to
>> use.  It just happens that Arch developers like having most things packaged
>> quickly so that is what we do.
>>
>> If we happen to be delayed updating something, it is either because no
>> developer has the time to update it or no developer particular cares about
>> updating it.  We develop this distribution in our own free time so will get
>> to things when we want to, not when demand dictates it.
>>
>> And yes you have filed bugs about rebuilds, and yes you applied to be a
>> junior dev.  However, your demanding attitude in repeated emails with
>> regards to this update means that we would much rather have a delayed perl
>> release that have you on the developer team.  We rate not being an ass much
>> high than technical skill when selecting people when selecting people to
>> "work" with.
>>
>> Allan
>>
>
> I think everyone is missing the OP's point. Seems he has done a lot of
> work already to bring this version of perl to Arch. Work that is going
> to be done anyways by a Arch developer. If there is some technical
> reason to not except them. Then by all means just state the technical
> reasons maybe he can fix them.

The OPs point was that we should be embarrassed to have perl released 
after Mandriva has got it into their developmental repos.  Note that we 
have had the same perl release in our "developmental" repo for ages the 
OP really was just being a wanker.

My response, as it has been in all the previous emails on this topic is 
that it will get done when it gets done.  We all have other things to do 
in life (including paid employment) and things get done when we get 
time.  For many of us, things that we get paid for take priority.  If I 
was being paid to work on Arch, then my priorities would change (my 
consulting rates are >100USD per hour if someone want to employ me...).

> But this is not the first time I have seen this kinda of
> contradiction. If anyone has a bug or problem they are told to submit
> patches. When they have patches they then have to jump through so many
> hoops they never get submitted. Or they get flamed to the point they
> rather not contribute every again.

Just because you have submitted patches or bug reports (which _is_ very 
useful and appreciated), does not mean that our time will magically free 
up.  It just means that we need to free up less time.

The reason this particular thread got the response it did is that this 
is not the first such thread the OP has started and now we should 
apparently be embarrassed by another distro updating a package to their 
developmental repo.

> I find it hard to believe that a distribution that contains how many
> thousands of opensource project in it's repositories. Has failed to
> adopt a more open development process then this.

What is not open?  Everything we do is in the open.  You can see every 
commit we make to SVN on the arch-commits list, all development 
discussion occurs on arch-dev-public.  We are also quite open about 
doing this on a volunteer basis and that quite often other things take 
priority in our lives.  I'm not sure what we could do to be more open 
but suggestions on that (in a separate thread) would be welcome.

Allan