Re: GNOME 1.4 extra apps coordinators

[John Fleck <jfleck inkstain net>]

On Sun, Oct 22, 2000 at 03:46:20PM -0500, Dan Mueth wrote:
> 
> I am still for having gnome-xxx-extras packages. I promise not to scream
> and shout if everybody disagrees, but I will try to explain why.
> 
> The main reason is for the user.  Right now the user has a hard time
> finding additional good applications for their system.  The software map
> helps some, but it is somewhat tricky to navigate.  A search feature would
> help here.  Once one does find an application they want, the quality is
> completely random.  The application could be long abandoned, only
> available in certain packages (eg. only tgz), and while I haven't done a
> careful survey, my impression is that there is little translation or
> even documentation of these packages.  Having all of the applications
> seperate means the user must find, download, install, and test each
> application and hope for the best.  Having a single package of tested and
> supported applications would help a lot here.
> 
> Now having the extra apps will help, since a certain level of QA will be
> done on these packages before giving them the "stamp of approval" of the
> extra apps coordinators.  Will the extra apps coordinators make sure each
> app is available in tgz, rpm, and deb packages?  This would be very nice,
> but would take some work.  We also would like to have documentation and
> translations for each package.
> 

As a documents person, I have to agree with Dan. My example is the
gnome-utils package, where a decision was made to group a number of
programs together under one umbrella. By stamping it "gnome-utils", we
in the documentation community knew where to expend our energy, both
in writing docs and in doing some QA to make sure they worked right
and looked good. In the process of assembling the package, a lot of
testing and bug killing was done that might not have otherwise
happened.

Cheers,
-- 
John Fleck
jfleck inkstain net (h)
jfleck abqjournal com (w)
http://www.inkstain.net/fleck/
http://www.abqjournal.com/scitech/