On Fri, 25 Jan 2008, Joey Hess wrote:
The competing vcs situation has its problems, but no matter what vcs is used for a package, you can check out the source to the package using apt-get source. This allows examination and modification of the source to any package, without needing to know the vcs.
I agree here, but if I understood Ben Finney in http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2008/01/msg00912.html right, others do not. (I admit I might have missunderstood you or Ben.)
Unless what you get when you run apt-get source is *not* the source that is in the end used to build the package, which is instead squirrled away in some arbitrary patch format somewhere under debian/. In this case, unlike in the vcs case, you have to figure out an arbitrary other tool to get the source. The key difference, as I mentioned in my blog post is that using a vcs does not add vcs-specific cruft (aside from .ignore files and the like) to the debian source package. Using a patch system does add patch-system specific cruft.
So your main issue is that patches belong into the code not into a separate directory (in whatever form). I would think that this is a question of developers perferences and style of working and this will split DDs into two separate sets (no idea about the percentage covering). But I agree with you that it might be more effectively if we settle down on a situation where all developers at least should be perfectly able to use a common working technique. To accomplish this IMHO the first step would be a good documentation of it (after settling down the discussion here). I for myself would refuse to learn different vcs but if there is a chance for a common wrapper - I might consider changing my working preferences. Kind regards Andreas. -- http://fam-tille.de -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]