On Apr 19, 2009, at 4:25 AM, Bert Freudenberg wrote:
> I'm cc'ing a few of the people I know worked on DEB packages before.  
> Guys - what do you think of the idea to have a mailing list  
> specifically for packaging issues? Here is my initial post  
> explaining the motivation:
>
> http://lists.squeakfoundation.org/pipermail/squeak-dev/2009-April/135551.html

Two things.

First, there is an abundance of packaging efforts, but the one Matej  
maintains is the most developed.  In the short term, I strongly  
recommend that the web team indicate these as the "main" deb files to  
use for Debian.  I believe the Ubuntu project does include its own  
Squeak packages; I think that's a mistake, but it's up to them, and  
theirs should be indicated on the Squeak web pages as well.   
Similarly, I would think Debian itself of all groups should use  
Matej's packages.

Second, many people underestimate how well developed that package set  
really is.  They reflect multiple maintainers' work:  originally they  
were made by Ian and Marcus, I picked up maintenance of them later,  
and now Matej is maintaining them.  To contrast, simply making  
installable .deb's is just the start of a long process.  Many people  
have made that start, and they confuse matters when they post about it  
as if it hasn't been done many times before. If you want really good  
packages, you have to go from there and refine all the rough edges.

To give one example, the package layout itself takes some  
consideration, if you want image and sources files to be installed  
independently and multiply:

http://ftp.squeak.org/debian/squeak-on-debian.pdf

A related issue is that the "squeak" wrapper script .  The one in  
Matej's packages has had upwards of 10 hours of discussion and  
development, much of the goal of which is work harmoniously with the  
above packaging layout:

http://wiki.squeak.org/squeak/5643

Another issue is integration with desktop menu item systems, so that  
"Squeak" is on the various Start menus.  There are various menu  
systems around, and it takes some time to get it working for all of  
them.  Each of these items is modest, but it adds up.  It would be a  
terrible waste of effort, and no service to Squeak's users, to start  
over from scratch.


-Lex