Re: Re[gnu.misc.discuss,gnu.emacs.gnus] Free software: Packagers vs Developers
On Fri, Jul 02, 1999 at 05:15:12PM +0200, Per Abrahamsen wrote:
> Martin Quinson <mquinson@ens-lyon.fr> writes:
>
> > If my mother uses your programm (actually, she doesn't, but she
> > could), she will have problems with it.
>
> You have a tough mother.
>
> > Now, she ask me why it doesn't work. I'm an middleman.
>
> Right. This is close to the traditional University situation with
> system administrators acting as middlemen. In both cases it works
> well, because the middlemen here are so close to the users that they
> can act on their behalf.
>
> It is somewhat different situation than if you got a bug report form a
> Japanese user, who couldn't make the software work with the Kanji
> version of jtex, but suggested a patch touching part of the code that
> was encoded in iso 2022 jp.
This can come either from a "techie user" than from a packager. Following
the discussion, it seems to me that the problem is one of a bad bug
report (something happening even in the best support network) who needs
clarifications. Yes, the information is insufficient, but you know how
to get better informations :
Email either the package maintainer or the user, at your preference, and
ask him your questions. CC the other one is recommended.
Contact the maintainer and discuss with him on how do you want bugs and
patches will be submit. As maintainers, will have some policies contraints
but they should not affect the way your code work (at least if it's
really multi-platform). Also, take into account that debian is not a
Linux/i386 english users only distributions. We are one of the most
internationalized distribution and we support multiple arch with more
to come including FreeBSD, Hurd and even Win32 (if it's feasible ;).
So, don't say us that we got the easy-linux jobs. Integration can be as
difficult as development. Polite discussions is the only correct way
to resolve all those problems, really more than any set of rules or
laws some can come up with.
--
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Fabien Ninoles GULUS founder
aka Corbeau aka le Veneur Gris Debian GNU/Linux maintainer
E-mail: fab@tzone.org
WebPage: http://www.callisto.si.usherb.ca/~94246757
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