[Pan-users] Re: New version of pan ?

[Duncan]

Petr Kovar posted on Sun, 16 Jan 2011 21:03:30 +0100 as excerpted:

> Petr Kovar, Sun, 16 Jan 2011 20:42:15 +0100:
> 
>> So to sum it up, what would it take to roll out a new release and
>> distribute it to users via standard channels...
>> 
>> First off, someone who eventually takes the responsibility to do the
>> release needs to have a GNOME developer account with write access to
>> ftp.gnome.org, and also Pan website (quite easily obtainable given
>> Charles' consent, that is).
>> 
>> Second, one needs to merge K Haley's appropriate branch (I believe this
>> is called 'testing' in the github.com repository, please correct me if
>> I'm wrong) with the master branch in the Pan official repository at
>> git.gnome.org.
>> 
>> Third, do the actual release, tag it in the repository, make tarball,
>> install it to ftp.gnome.org.
> 
> Oops, now I see that Charles actually uploaded new releases to:
> 
> http://pan.rebelbase.com/download/releases/
> 
> I was mistaken since there are some really historical release sources
> (up to 0.11.2) on ftp.gnome.org as well:
> 
> ftp://ftp.gnome.org/pub/GNOME/sources/pan/
> 
> So that's one step less when making the release.

Yes.  Keep in mind that with gnome-1 and pan thru 0.11, pan was actually a 
gnome app -- it required gnome libraries not just gtk.  With gtk2, the 
reach of gtk improved enough that pan was able to drop its dependencies on 
the gnome libraries and use only gtk.  Of course, it's at least possible 
that I'm about the only person around here that has been using pan since 
the full-gnome-1 versions, and that's new info to many readers. =:^|

That would explain why the old <=0.11 versions are up on ftp.gnome.org.

FWIW, however, pan's official git repo as well as bug tracker is still 
part of gnome's git and bugzilla, respectively.  So it's someone who both 
understands gnome's rules and has gnome git access (plus the willingness 
to do it) that we need.

Meanwhile, khaley's git repo was originally directly cloned off the gnome 
git repo, I believe.  Khaley has done some preliminary work with Charles, 
and has several branches setup, including the testing I run and a more 
stable to-release branch.  Charles has in fact offered khaley co-commit 
rights (much as Chris had for some time, tho Chris seems to have lost 
interest and moved on as well) or even project head developer, but for 
whatever reason, it seems that while khaley's fine working on his (her?) 
own git repo and was even OK with having Charles take his to-release 
branch and basically release it as-is, he's drawing the line at actual 
gnome access, which he's apparently not interested in for whatever 
personal reasons.  <shrug>  Maybe there's some history of some sort there 
that few are privy to.  Whatever.  That seems to be the line.

So basically, what's needed is someone willing to take the official 
responsibility for at minimum, doing the git-pull from khaley's to-release 
(or whatever it's called, IDR and I'm too lazy to check my local clone 
ATM) branch into gnome's official git repo, plus some sort of coordination 
on bugs, etc.  Of course to do that you have to become an officially 
recognized gnome dev or whatever, but it sounds like you're pretty much 
there (as a translater if I recall) already.

Then someone needs to do at least minimal basic web site maintenance as 
well.  IIRC Charles said pan.rebelbase may well remain available, altho he 
hasn't checked in with the rebelbase main domain folks in awhile.  But at 
least Charles has no problem with whoever takes over pan getting it, 
anyway.  Or, it can be moved, and presumably, Charles would consider some 
sort of forwarding for pan.rebelbase, at least for a year or two (again, 
assuming the rebelbase main domain folks don't mind), seeing how long that 
has been in pan's about box.

FWIW, a new pan primary dev could in theory take pan in an entirely new 
direction.  Of course there's a few things that if changed would pretty 
much drive off many current users.  For me personally, that would include 
at least the following three possibilities: (1) deemphasizing pan's GNKSA 
rating, (2) (non-optionally) switching pan back to full gnome 
dependencies, (3) switching development focus to the MS Windows port.  If 
any of those three were to happen, I'd be looking elsewhere (or simply 
give up on news).  Similarly, altho it'd be great by me, I expect a lot of 
others would be looking elsewhere were pan to switch to say a qt or worse 
yet, kde base, from the present gtk.

Anyway, if you're interested in trying to be that gnome-front-end person, 
I'd definitely suggest contacting khaley personally, to see what sort of 
deal you might be able to setup.  You'll eventually need to contact 
Charles as well, but that can probably wait until after you've talked to 
khaley.  If that bit won't work for whatever reason, no need to bother 
Charles (tho it's possible he'll pop in here with a post or two... or not).

-- 
Duncan - List replies preferred.   No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master."  Richard Stallman