[Blends-commit] r3586 - in /blends/trunk/docs/bits: ./ 2012-10_bits

tille at users.alioth.debian.org tille at users.alioth.debian.org
Mon Oct 22 19:51:18 UTC 2012 

Author: tille
Date: Mon Oct 22 19:51:17 2012
New Revision: 3586

URL: http://svn.debian.org/wsvn/blends/?sc=1&rev=3586
Log:
Add the text of the bits mail to debian-devel-announce (https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2012/10/msg00008.html)

Added:
    blends/trunk/docs/bits/
    blends/trunk/docs/bits/2012-10_bits

Added: blends/trunk/docs/bits/2012-10_bits
URL: http://svn.debian.org/wsvn/blends/blends/trunk/docs/bits/2012-10_bits?rev=3586&op=file
==============================================================================
--- blends/trunk/docs/bits/2012-10_bits (added)
+++ blends/trunk/docs/bits/2012-10_bits Mon Oct 22 19:51:17 2012
@@ -1,0 +1,152 @@
+Hi,
+
+in this bits:
+  1. Scientific citations
+  2. Prospective packages in VCS
+  3. Proposal to move Blends code from SVN to Git
+  4. General situation of Blends
+
+1. Scientific citations
+-----------------------
+
+Due to the effort of Charles Plessy to gather machine readable
+information about upstream[1a] there is a set of references about
+scientific publications available.  This is an ideal situation for
+scientific Blends like Debian Science, Debian Med and DebiChem because
+it opens the chance to strengthen the connection to upstream authors of
+software by advertising their scientific work.  While the web sentinel
+provides a way to inject such citations directly inside the tasks files
+of a Blend this had several drawbacks which are now solved:
+
+  1. Citations do not need to be specified in every single task
+     file in case a package is useful in more than one task.
+  2. The reference information is directly attached to a package
+     and can be used there for other purposes as well.
+  3. The infromation of debian/upstream files is parsed in Vcs
+     and injected in UDD[1b] were it can be used quite flexible.
+
+Technically the Upstream Metadata Gatherer[1a] parses the packaging
+VCSes once a day and creates a tar archive which in turn is parsed by
+the UDD[1b] bibref gather.  Once the data are inside UDD there are
+several chances to use these also independently from the usage inside
+Blends sentinal pages.  For instance you can create a BibTeX file of all
+citations inside Debian which was explained at Debian Science mailing
+list[1c].
+
+[1a] https://wiki.debian.org/UpstreamMetadata
+[1b] https://wiki.debian.org/UltimateDebianDatabase
+[1c] https://lists.debian.org/debian-science/2012/04/msg00077.html
+     (and other mails in this mailing list)
+
+
+2. Prospective Packages in VCS
+------------------------------
+
+The Blends tasks files may contain so called prospective packages[2a].
+On one hand these entries are informing users what software the
+packaging team is working on and on the other hand these entries ensure
+that metapackages are built nicely without changes once the package in
+question has reached the Debian mirror.  It has turned out that some
+tasks files became quite long because of these prospective packages
+entries and on the other hand information of packages that are just
+prepared in VCS of a packaging team is duplicated.
+
+To enhance this situation a parser was written that gathers information
+of all machine readable files in VCS of the Blends packaging teams and
+injects this information into an UDD[1b] table.  From there it is read
+when the tasks pages of the web sentinel are rendered and thus the extra
+information about prospective packages in the tasks file becomes
+redundant.  The raw archive of this information can be found here[2b].
+
+[2a] http://blends.alioth.debian.org/blends/ch-sentinel.en.html#s-edittasksfiles
+[2b] http://blends.debian.net/packages-metadata/packages-metadata.tar.bz2
+
+
+3. Proposal to move Blends code from SVN to Git
+-----------------------------------------------
+
+A proposal was posted on the Blends listi[3a] to switch the repository
+maintaining Blends code from SVN to Git.  If you are involved in
+maintaining parts of the code and are not happy with this move this is
+your chance to raise your voice now because there are chances to leave
+some parts which you might be interested in untouched if your personal
+workflow would be spoiled by this move.
+
+[3a] https://lists.debian.org/debian-blends/2012/10/msg00002.html
+
+
+4. General situation of Blends
+------------------------------
+
+Debian Accessibility
+    Team works constantly and successful to enhance accessibility
+    features of Debian
+
+BrDesktop
+    Became a bit silent in the last time - some bits of the drivers
+    might be interesting.
+
+DebiChem
+    Team works constantly on maintenance of existing and new
+    packages which are useful for Chemists.
+
+Debian Edu
+    Has released Debian Edu based on Squeeze and made good progress
+    to gather new team members.
+
+Debian EzGo
+    Became a bit silent in the last time - some bits of the drivers
+    might be interesting.
+
+Debian GIS
+    Team works constantly on maintenance of existing and new
+    packages used in Geographic Information Systems as well as
+    OpenStreetMap.  It might not harm if the team would be more
+    visible in and outside Debian because there should be
+    potentially a lot of more users and developers.
+
+Debian Junior
+    Recently some new light might be at horizon to revitalise
+    the project - at least the mailing list[4a] recived some
+    promising mails.
+
+Debian Lex
+    Did not really started ever, recently there was some activity
+    on the mailing list to vitalise the project a bit.  On the
+    other hand it was suggested by Debian web team to state on
+    Debian Lex website that the project is discontinued.
+
+Debian Med
+    Constant progress to package even more software for medical
+    care and biological research as well as a constant increase
+    of developers in the team.  The progress was boosted by
+    the yearly sprints (see last Debian Med bits in March[4b])
+
+Debian Multimedia
+    Team works constantly on maintenance of existing and new
+    multimedia packages.  It might not harm if the team would be
+    more visible in and outside Debian because there should be
+    potentially a lot of more users and developers.
+
+Debian Science
+    Constant progress to package even more scientific software
+    which is not yet covered by Debian Med or DebiChem team.
+    Also the number of tasks is increased.  It might make sense
+    to branch some Debian Mathematics or Debian Physics project
+    from Debian Science to add more stucture to those topics
+    and create more dedicated teams.
+
+In summary I would like to say that I do see good chances for
+improving some Blends as well as using the technique in other
+fields as well to make Debian more popular in additional
+workfields.
+
+[4a] http://lists.debian.org/debian-jr/
+[4b] https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2012/03/msg00009.html
+
+Thanks for your interest in Debian Pure Blends and feel free
+to read more about it[0]
+
+       Andreas.
+
+[0] http://blends.alioth.debian.org/blends/

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