MOTU Application for Guillaume Martres (smarter)

[Cesare Tirabassi]

On Tuesday 23 September 2008 18:03:42 you wrote:
> Hi,
> - PlanetPenguin Racer has been unmaintained for years now

The popcon stats however are telling me that ppracer is still quite downloaded 
and used:

Ubuntu
2618  planetpenguin-racer         35666  1305 33831   517    13
5670  extremetuxracer                 6522    813   5165   542      2

Debian
http://qa.debian.org/popcon.php?package=ppracer
http://qa.debian.org/popcon.php?package=extremetuxracer

Assuming however that we don't want to have ppracer anymore, then why not 
simply ask for it to be removed?

> - ExtremeTuxRacer will eventually completely replace it, I didn't have time
> to add conflicts/replaces and to request the removal of ppracer for
> Intrepid, and I'd like to discuss it with Debian first(even if the
> maintainer doesn't seem really responsive)

Didn't you ask yourself why the debian maintainer decided to package it 
differently (omitting the faulty binary package)?

> - These files weren't modified by the etracer team, so having one of the
> package or the other does not make any difference

Yes, so, why not just changing file names and possibly the content of the 
palette files (they are called ppracer* right now, so why not etracer* or 
whatever else you are using for the rest of the package), so that both 
packages could be installed at the same time?
Are you aware that using replaces/conflicts is a last resource to be used 
sparingly, and certainly not to cover these type of cases?

> - Removing the package would mean that people who want these files and
> extremetuxracer at the same time would have to get some etracer packages
> and some ppracer, which is a bit confusing.

Why? I installed them both and played with them for a while, I can understand 
that some people may want to have them both (as the bug reported did).

Anyway, the technical merit or not of your choice is not the point. What is 
important for me is the impression I got, mainly that you decided on your own 
taking the easy way out, disregarding the opinion of a fellow community 
member and the opinion of the Debian maintainer.
This is certainly not the behaviour I like to see in a fellow MOTU.

Cesare