Re: [gentoo-dev] [news-item] Paludis 0.24

[Maurice van der Pot <griffon26@gentoo.org>]

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It looks like it is not clear enough what kind of news should be called
critical.

If for instance an upgrade from package foo-3.4 to foo-4.0 will cause
the system to break unless specific steps are followed (mysql/gcc), it's
obvious that it's suitable for a news item. 
If an upgrade from an ancient version foo-0.99 to version foo-7.3 causes
the system to break, it will not require a news item because it's common
sense that data formats may have changed dramatically.

Where do we draw the line on this? I'm not saying there should be a
mathematical formula that will tell you whether or not to create a news
item, but at least we all should have more or less the same idea about
it.

In the current situation an upgrade to paludis-0.24 will not break
anything right away. On the other hand, if someone sticks to an earlier
version and only upgrades after support for the old format has been
removed, he may (will?) have a problem.


Personally I feel we should send as few news items as possible. If we
send a lot of them, people will start ignoring them. Config file formats
change all the time and as long as there is a period of time where a
package supports both and warns about the old format being used, I would
not consider it worthy of a news item. If the application will just fail
to start with the old format and the required changes are trivial, don't 
send a news item.

Regards,
Maurice.

-- 
Maurice van der Pot

Gentoo Linux Developer   griffon26@gentoo.org     http://www.gentoo.org
Creator of BiteMe!       griffon26@kfk4ever.com   http://www.kfk4ever.com


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