Require packages in PPA

[Allison Randal]

On 01/10/2012 07:29 AM, Daniel Holbach wrote:
> Hello everybody,
> 
> David Planella, Michael Vogt, Stéphane Graber and I had a conversation
> earlier and discussed the idea of requiring PPA uploads for free app
> submissions.
> 
> The idea was: that for a package submitter it would work like this:
> they'd specify that it's a free app, then be presented with a PPA picker
> (LP OpenID and some LP API magic should get it for us) and a package
> picker afterwards. A simpler version would just require them to paste
> the PPA URL.
> 
> This would make it a lot easier for the ARB, because we would ensure
> that packages
> 
>  - are in source package form
>  - actually build
>  - etc.
> 
> What do you think about the proposal?

It's a strong filter, which might make review easier, but will also
certainly keep a lot of less experienced developers out. It seems a bit
opposite the idea of "automated packaging" that we're working on at the
same time.

And, I would really hate to kick out the current 45 apps in the queue
saying "Sorry, we added a requirement that you have to use a PPA, so
your submission is now invalid". :(

My preference would be to encourage the use of PPAs, but not make it a
hard requirement. That way we can fast-track the ones who do use a PPA,
but not completely block the ones who haven't figured out how yet. Maybe
one of the first things we can do is help them figure out PPAs.

> A separate idea we kicked around was to massage the combined knowledge
> of the ARB into a small tool which downloads the package from the
> specified PPA and performs a number of tests on them.
> 
> The script could be run by the package submitter, MyApps itself and
> obviously ARB members as well. I attached a small and quick proof of
> concept.

This is cool. :)

Allison