[Pkg-erlang-devel] CouchDB packaging updates

[Sam Bisbee]

On Tue, Nov 10, 2009 at 02:55:03PM -0500, Chad MILLER wrote:
> Hi, I work near Elliot, and I don't mind elucidating some of the details  
> that he thinks are offtopic here.  For most replies about our rationale  
> and usage internals, perhaps we should go off-list; I do not mind.

Hello Chad,

Thank you very much for your reply, it was quite clear and it sounds like
you're doing some interesting things with couchdb. I'm quite happy to hear that
you're trying to spread couchdb use.

However, your packaging and use of couchdb _does_ change the natural way things
are done with couchdb. I'm not saying that what you are trying to accomplish is
right or wrong, I'm just saying that it's not what native couchdb does. That
makes it a fork, regardless of whether you change the code or not.

If you think that your changes have merit, then feel free to take them to the
core project. However, our job is to package the software "as is" and get it
into the distro. If we were to change how things behave, deviating from the
software, then we'd be betraying our/couchdb's users. If we wanted to change
how the software acts, then we would create a different project and fork the
behavior. This may be something that you want to look into doing if you don't
get support from the couchdb project.

The only time that we should be changing behavior or code in couchdb is when it
breaks on Debian, and in a few special cases where it breaks in child projects
(ex., desktopcouch) and distros (ex., Ubuntu).

Cheers,

p.s. In case someone is going to start waving flags, I'm not saying this
because you guys have Canonical and Ubuntu e-mails or because you are pushing
for following an Ubuntu system. I am however trying to preserve couchdb when
packaging it, and would be saying these same things whether we were packaging
for Debian or Ubuntu.

-- 
Sam Bisbee