ons 2001-12-26 klockan 04.33 skrev Daniel Robbins:

> Just remember that we have to somehow work towards a *stable* KDE3 release.  I
> think having a separate system profile for KDE3 development might be a good
> compromise.

Ok, looks like you misunderstood me. I'm not talking about beta
_ebuilds_. I'm talking about beta packages (like for instance, GNOME
produces lots of beta releases of GNOME2. These packages are _only_
supposed for GNOME developers). From my discussion with Dan about this
issue, the KDE3 betas we are discussing here are for KDE developers.

Beta ebuilds are a totally different issue. In that case I think masking
them is the correct way to go. But if we start packaging stuff that we
know are very unstable packages we'll end up spending lots of time on
doing:

*) Patches for the installations (since it's not finished) which is 
   obsoleted when the stable version comes out.

*) Debugging KDE/foobar source which has nothing to do with Gentoo.

*) Having to spend lots of time trying to figure out if it's our ebuilds
   or the released tarballs that is flaky.

And trust me, we will end up doing all of the above, no matter how many
warning signs we put up. Because most people takes a look on them and
thinks it's ok. Then they will mail the mailinglist or discuss on IRC
never the less and the developers will end up spending lots of time on
these things that is none of Gentoo's concern.

So what I'm saying is that _we_ shouldn't work towards a stable KDE3
release, the KDE release team should. Once it's out we should work
towards stable packages of that software.

This is why I suggested to Dan that if he wants to play around with KDE3
he should make ebuilds and distribute them from himself rather than in
the portage. That way it will be clear that users wanting to discuss
KDE3/those ebuilds should turn to him rather than any of the other
developers.

This is the way I plan to distribute ebuilds for Gtk+/GNOME pre-2.0.

Regards,
  Mikael Hallendal

-- 

Mikael Hallendal
Gentoo Linux Developer, Desktop Team Leader
CodeFactory AB, Stockholm, Sweden