[Pkg-phototools-devel] Hugin + Debian - touching base

[Andreas Metzler]

On 2009-09-06 Yuval Levy <yuval at levy.ch> wrote:
[...]
> When I look at [backports] we're still 0.7.0. I have no clue what the  
> policies are at Debian for inclusion in stable and unstable.

Hello,
* Stable: Once it is released basically only fixes for security issues
  and serious bugs. Stable as in "does not change"

* Unstable is where the main development happens, however we try not to
  totally break it. Disruptive changes/known break should end up in
  experimental (not a distribution at its own, just a testing ground.)

We usually do not want to ship SVN snapshots or pre-releases in table
releases. And since packages trickle down from unstable to "testing"
automatically (if they match certain criterias of non-buginess) SVN
snapshots are rarely uploaded to unstable nowadays. - We would not
want to accidentally ship a svn snapshot in stable. (I know that this
is precisely what we ended up in the lenny release, but 0.7.0 was not
doable and the thing we ended up with was preferable to 0.6.1.)

> I would  like to help streamline/improve/accelerate the trickling
> down of newer versions of Hugin/Enblend/Libpano.

I think it works reasonably well actually. The main reason that we
only have hugin 0.8.0 in Debian since yesterday is the
license/copright checking. It is not a thing a like to do and it takes a
lot of time.

I have now been able to strip out a couple of dubious files that
were not necessary for the release and ended up with something that
is probably a little bit better than the 0.7.0 we already had.

It is now sitting in experimental and will probably be uploaded to
sid soonish (if Cyril is also happy with that). After that I might
tackle 2009.x.rc for experimental.

> My personal interest is Ubuntu (easier for monkeys like me) and I  
> started a [PPA] there, which is currently empty. I do not know the  
> details of the relation between Debian versions and Ubuntu versions. Is  
> there any overlap? Or do we have to do the Ubuntu packages separately,  
> even if they use the same distribution system and they come from the  
> same lineage of Linux?

> You will forgive me that I "use" you as an in-between station to get to  
> Ubuntu.

Afaiui Ubuntu /often/ follows Debian packages automatically. (e.g. enfuse
in Ubuntu is identical to the Debian packages), sometimes applying
bugfixes/patches tailored for Ubuntu of top of it.

> I have a last question about the difference between Debian and Ubuntu. I  
> have found Autopano in Ubuntu [Jaunty] but not in Debian. Are you aware  
> of this? Autopano, which is in the Hugin repo, has also undergone some  
> major (speed) improvements. Memory leaks are being fixed and I hope  
> we'll have a release next year.

autopano-sift(-c) is not part of Debian because of the known patent
issues.
cu andreas
-- 
`What a good friend you are to him, Dr. Maturin. His other friends are
so grateful to you.'
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