How to make package managers cry

[François Bissey]

Forwarding this from on another list. I was going to only post it
to sage-packaging but I really think it belongs here.

PDF:
https://fosdem.org/2018/schedule/event/how_to_make_package_managers_cry/attachments/slides/2297/export/events/attachments/how_to_make_package_managers_cry/slides/2297/how_to_make_package_managers_cry.pdf

youtube video of the presentation at fosdem (must watch)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSemlYagjIU

François

[Pedro Cruz]

Thank you,

Pedro

(not in sage-packaging)

[kcrisman]

On Tuesday, May 8, 2018 at 6:21:29 PM UTC-4, François Bissey wrote:

Forwarding this from on another list. I was going to only post it
to sage-packaging but I really think it belongs here.

excuses you can use:

•

"See commit history on GitHub for more details." 

Ahem.

[Dima Pasechnik]

"Just google the details" is the best, IMHO.

 

Ahem.

[Dima Pasechnik]

On Wednesday, May 9, 2018 at 4:32:21 PM UTC+1, kcrisman wrote:

[John H Palmieri]

At the risk of stating the obvious: kcrisman is pointing out that Sage developers actually use "See commit history ... for more details", and not infrequently. I don't think we use "Just google the details", or at least I don't remember seeing it.

--
John

[Erik Bray]

Yes--I have in the past suggested we use either Town Crier, or some
custom-made thing using a field in Trac tickets to generate an actual
readable changelog for Sage, but have been met with mysterious
resistance. I'm so glad I don't have to do any work integrating Sage
as I would with, say, a library, or not having a real changelog would
be making me pull my hair out.

[Dima Pasechnik]

Another favourite I keep pushing back into a far corner of my brain, as it had caused a lot of pain:

"VCS history is private; our soft is under GPL, but our commits are private"

This is why GAP commit history only goes back to circa 2010 or so,even though the project did start around 1990...

[kcrisman]

At the risk of stating the obvious: kcrisman is pointing out that Sage developers actually use "See commit history ... for more details", and not infrequently. I don't think we use "Just google the details", or at least I don't remember seeing it.

Right.  And although I believe some people (Samuel L?) have been working on using Jeroen's old scripts to generate the changelog we used to have, it hasn't been as well advertised in the past.  That said, I think that Dima points out that one could certainly imagine the latter phrase being used as well, even if it hasn't been (yet).

[Ralf Stephan]

On Wednesday, May 9, 2018 at 8:48:04 PM UTC+2, Erik Bray wrote:

Yes--I have in the past suggested we use either Town Crier,

https://trac.sagemath.org/ticket/22176