launchpad-dev team mailing list archive

[Ian Clatworthy <ian.clatworthy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

James Westby wrote:
> On Sun Nov 22 17:05:54 -0600 2009 Ian Clatworthy wrote:
>> By that, I assume you mean "I've packaged this branch. Upload it."? Or
>> did you mean "Package this branch for me and upload it."? Please
>> clarify. I think the second is far more important wrt connecting
>> upstreams to user communities via bzr+lp+ubuntu.
> 
> You want a command that automatically does all the packaging for
> an arbitrary upstream project?

Hmm. Maybe I expressed it badly. I want us to make it dead easy for
upstreams to get selected branches into a PPA (or other archive) with
the *minimum amount of friction and delay*. They can then say to their
community stuff like[1] ...

 "To test our latest daily/beta/whatever, add the PPA here: ..."

 "To test the proposed fix for bug xxx, add the PPA here: ..."

Users can then leverage everything great about Ubuntu/Debian (apt,
synaptic, Software Centre, Update Manager, system integrity) to be more
involved in just-in-time testing of upstreams they care about. Users
then win. By connecting with testers faster, upstreams win. When users
and upstreams win by using Ubuntu+LP+bzr in preference to anything else,
we win.

Technically, "automatically packaging an upstream" is beyond what I
understand is possible. OTOH, combining a new branch or new branch tip
with existing packaging via a simple recipe sounds very doable, yes?

To try and clarify further, I'm not saying "make it easier for
unpackaged projects to be packaged the first time" as useful as that
would be. I'm saying "after an initial investment in packaging by
someone with expert knowledge, let's aim to offer upstreams and
interested users 'one-click' build+deploy".

So *my* end criteria for our success is questions like:

* Was it easy for an upstream to get new stuff into a PPA?
* How long did it take it?
* Was it easy for users to test new stuff?

Make sense? I 99% sure Robert and others are saying the same thing.

Ian C.

[1] These things are possible now but it take expert knowledge and/or
time delays to get through the package upload cycle.