[aur-general] TU Application: Ray Rashif (schivmeister)

[Ray Rashif]

Hello list

I know there's been a couple of applications in the last few days, and
another has just started, so please don't be annoyed. The unlucky TU this
time is Chris Brannon (I flipped a coin, the other side being "try
again..next time"). He's been great and has sacrificed time to check my
packages out, so thank you once again Chris!

I have split the following autonetography into parts for selective
digestion; you guys can read only what matters. Yeah, right..? (hint:
ctrl+f, "=", ENTER | whatmattersmost: "Usage")

== Preamble ==
I started with Arch Linux not too long ago, from early-mid 2007. Linux
itself, somewhere around 2006. My first stop was the IRC, at which point of
time I used to hang out on #gentoo and #sabayon (now you know my previous
poison). Just for a little fun, I vaguely recall it went something like
this:

schiv: does arch have anything like USE flags?
Xilon: no
$someone_else: compiling has absolutely zero benefit
schiv: ok

As you can see, people were not very hostile back then (probably because a
lot of questions have become reccuring over time). Anyway, I liked my system
immediately and started picking on beginners like myself on IRC. "Pick on
someone your own size" - that's exactly what I did and I even picked on a
certain user going by the handle of "Daenyth".

== Getting Started ==
My next stop was AUR, the first package being "wicd", which thanks to
then-developer Varun is now in [extra] and serving the community well. Then
I took to the forums to help aid others in trying to get wicd working, and
that marked the beginning of my "time on Arch".

For the rest of the year I almost-regularly visited the forums, and on
occasions edited wiki articles, reported bugs. I uploaded and maintained AUR
packages which I used, so even up til now, there aren't that many. I began
helping out with a "pro audio" initiative, of which the current ArchAudio [
http://archaudio.org ] is a direct result. I co-maintain and manage the
project along with other keen individuals.

>From mid 2008 through mid 2009, I was a little inactive due to hardware
failure, and something misleading called "real life", but nevertheless had
Arch running on a Windows machine through VirtualBox.

I thought of applying for TUship one or two times before, but it was either
time or "there's enough help already" that kept me from going ahead. There
was a TU "Shinlun" who I wanted to request for sponsorship because I could
take some load off, but he went inactive and ultimately stepped down. I
don't think lack of time is an excuse for me, and I now realise that even a
little dedication helps the community. One for all, all for one, but don't
quote me on this.

== Usage ==
My main packaging interest, as you might've guessed by now, is multimedia;
audio/video. Other than that, I would love to maintain popular and/or
important packages and ensure that users continue to have access to a bigger
arsenal and wider range of tools on Arch Linux. Hopefully, I will also be
working on getting the Sugar environment packaged (it's been on my TODO for
a while). I might occasionally send in useless patches for makepkg, as I
have done before, only to be struck down by Xavier's mighty roar. However, I
can't be of much help with the development of pacman itself, the AUR
internals, or anything else related to C or Web Development. Not yet, at
least.

== History ==
I come from a non-IT academic background, if such information needs to be
known. I'm "from the Arts and not Sciences" by society's standards, but in
fact I'm "neither or either". I'm from a tiny island-nation called
Singapore, and there is very little convergence of the two areas here.
Currently I'm pursuing DSP, in particular CSc Music, but not until I
complete my National Service which should start next year and end two and a
half after. I used to be a Philosophy student, and then Audio Engineering. I
hope to be able to get into Cosmology/Astrophysics eventually, but
competition here is tough and I was always lazy in class, lectures and Math
(I won't say I was "bad" at it). Professionally, I'm busy..I mean I'm "in
the business sector". Biologically, I'm a noob adult born in the Year of the
Snake (1989).

== Troubelshooting ==
So on to some questions of my own:

1) I remember we used to tell each other that we don't need to state
dependencies from [core] in AUR, how true is this? Are we looking at just
the base group or is it totally a matter of consistency?

2) How are cross-repository buildtime and optional dependencies handled? For
example, can we have a package in [extra] makedepend and/or optdepend on
another in [community]?

3) Unfortunately, it is time for a nice facepalm. I don't do x86_64. So do I
get access to the build machine in the event this application is accepted?

I would greatly appreciate any and all kinds of feedback with regards to my
packages. Even if a quorum is not reached, I put a very high value on advice
and opinion (!). Thank you for reading.

Regards


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