Re: Please stop useless removals (was: [gentoo-dev] last rites: games-arcade/bitefusion)

2013-02-01 Thread Rich Freeman
On Fri, Feb 1, 2013 at 3:21 AM, Alec Warner  wrote:
> On Thu, Jan 31, 2013 at 11:36 PM, Vaeth
>  wrote:
>> Please, please, stop removing packages for no reason!
>> This happens now way too often:
>>
>
> If folks do not want to maintain it anymore, then it will be removed.
> Feel free to contribute to Gentoo and maintain the packages.
>

I think this makes sense, IFF there is something fundamentally wrong
with the package.

Being unmaintained in and of itself is not something fundamentally
wrong with the package.

Having a few open bugs is not either.

Having security problems or being unusable is.  I'd throw in things
like serious file collisions and similar serious quality problems as
well.

I'd even throw in a missing distfile, but only if no user of the
software is willing to proxy maintain that aspect of the package.

The one thing missing from this discussion is that users CAN
proxy-maintain things.  Oh, and ANYBODY can run an overlay (it just
won't necessarily be listed in layman - but that is how every distro
does it).

I do think it is a loss for Gentoo if we start removing packages
simply because they don't change (which is all a dead upstream means -
it isn't always a bad thing).

Rich



Re: Please stop useless removals (was: [gentoo-dev] last rites: games-arcade/bitefusion)

2013-02-01 Thread Alec Warner
On Thu, Jan 31, 2013 at 11:36 PM, Vaeth
 wrote:
>
>>># Upstream is dead and gone.
>>># Masked for removal on 20130302
>>
>>
>> Erm, so this is the _only_ reason - dead upstream?
>
>
> ++
>
> Please, please, stop removing packages for no reason!
> This happens now way too often:
>
> app-dicts/ispell*
> app-portage/epm
> app-text/ispell
> games-arcade/bitefusion
> games-arcade/xboing
> games-action/trackballs
> games-emulation/xmame
> ...
>
> These are just some of the previous examples which I remember
> because I had to put them in my local overlay.
>
> None of these removals alone was so valuable to me that I saw
> a reason to step up, but the removals for no reasons accumulate
> previously so much that I see the need to say something:

If folks do not want to maintain it anymore, then it will be removed.
Feel free to contribute to Gentoo and maintain the packages.

>
> You are destroying the charme of gentoo by systematically
> removing all these little tools and toys.  The availability
> of a lot of software was once a strength of gentoo, so removing
> these things is really bad, especially if it happens for no
> real reason.

Gentoo is not a software archival service.

>
> I was understanding if e.g. someting was removed which needs
> the  a dead upstream. But just needing a small tool like imake (xboing)
> or having open feature requestes (epm) or even nothing and
> just dead upstream is IMHO really not a reason.
>
> If something really does not compile anymore and nobody cares,
> then remove keywords (or, for god's sake, mask it);
> if something might theoretically become a security issue (xpdf)
> then it should be masked.
>
> But please do not throw things out of the tree unless
> really necessary:
>
> It does not hurt anybody to have such package in the tree,
> but removing it - especially if upstream is dead - means
> that the tarbalös will be removed from the mirrors and thus
> nobody is able anymore to install it (even if he would care and
> fix some minor issues) unless he had kept a copy on
> his local machine (which will mean in the future that he can only
> do it if he had used gentoo already many years ago and cared
> during the time of the removal).

Again I highly recommend archiving the software yourself; but I don't
think Gentoo should be doing it.

-A

>
> (If the resources are an argument: I am not speaking about monster
> packages taking gigabytes of data - these might need to be
> discussed separately - but mainly about reasonably sized packages
> which even if summed up do not take much data).
>
> Regards
> Martin



Please stop useless removals (was: [gentoo-dev] last rites: games-arcade/bitefusion)

2013-01-31 Thread Vaeth



   # Upstream is dead and gone.
   # Masked for removal on 20130302


Erm, so this is the _only_ reason - dead upstream?


++

Please, please, stop removing packages for no reason!
This happens now way too often:

app-dicts/ispell*
app-portage/epm
app-text/ispell
games-arcade/bitefusion
games-arcade/xboing
games-action/trackballs
games-emulation/xmame
...

These are just some of the previous examples which I remember
because I had to put them in my local overlay.

None of these removals alone was so valuable to me that I saw
a reason to step up, but the removals for no reasons accumulate
previously so much that I see the need to say something:

You are destroying the charme of gentoo by systematically
removing all these little tools and toys.  The availability
of a lot of software was once a strength of gentoo, so removing
these things is really bad, especially if it happens for no
real reason.

I was understanding if e.g. someting was removed which needs
the 

Re: [gentoo-dev] last rites: games-arcade/bitefusion

2013-01-31 Thread Piotr Szymaniak
On Thu, Jan 31, 2013 at 01:48:27PM -0500, Michael Sterrett wrote:
># Michael Sterrett <> (31 Jan 2013)
># Upstream is dead and gone.
># Masked for removal on 20130302
>games-arcade/bitefusion

Erm, so this is the _only_ reason - dead upstream? Maybe it's not some
awesome game with a lot of players ;) but just a silly, litte clasic and
it still works fine...

Piotr Szymaniak.
-- 
 Jedna z głów  Zaphoda spojrzała w bok.  Druga  zrobiła  zaraz to samo,
gdyż  chciała zobaczyć,  na co patrzy pierwsza,  nie było to jednak nic
konkretnego.
  -- Douglas Adams, "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"


signature.asc
Description: Digital signature


[gentoo-dev] last rites: games-arcade/bitefusion

2013-01-31 Thread Michael Sterrett
# Michael Sterrett  (31 Jan 2013)
# Upstream is dead and gone.
# Masked for removal on 20130302
games-arcade/bitefusion