IronPython and Mono are very old. How can we get an update?

[Christopher James Halse Rogers]

On Fri, 2011-03-18 at 15:08 -0600, Vernon Cole wrote:
> Hello.
>   I am new to the list, please forgive and let me know if this is not
> the appropriate forum.
> 
> I was very pleased when IronPython appeared on synaptic -- even though
> I was a bit concerned that the version was 2.6B2 about the time that
> 2.6 was released.  No problem, given the regularity with which Ubuntu
> updates their packages, so I waited.
> 

The Ubuntu mono team is pretty much a subset of the Debain CLI team, and
the core maintainer of the mono package itself is a Debian dev (Mirco
Bauer).  This is good, in that we can ensure that Debian & Ubuntu stay
in sync and the work we do reaches the greatest possible audience.  It's
occasionally a bit awkward, too, when Debian freezes and stays frozen
for a while.

Now that Sid is open again, Mono 2.10.1 is being prepared (and should be
in Experimental soonish).  It's quite a big job, and there are always a
bunch of subtleties (in this case, a switch to the 4.0 profile).  Given
how far past feature freeze we are I would not expect to see a new mono
in Natty, but it'll be available in Oneric almost immediately.

Jo Shields (directhex) is part of the awesome core of ubuntu-cli and
runs http://badgerports.org/ for LTS releases; the news page of
badgerports suggests that you might want to try his Monoxide PPA for
2.10 once it's done in Debian.

> A short while ago, I contributed a patch to the IronPython standard
> library. I received a somewhat acid comment that my patch had not been
> tested on Mono/Linux.  True, it had not.  I downloaded the current
> source of IronPython from github, and discovered that I cannot build,
> because my version of Mono is too old.  In order to get a current
> version of Mono, my sources suggested, just switch to Redhat!!!  WTF?!
>  _Redhat_ has the latest stuff and Ubuntu is dragging in ancient
> history?
> 
> Something is wrong here!
> 
> IronPython 2.7 was released last week, with my patch and without the
> requested test.
> 
> Other than grouching on this list, what can I do to get my favourite
> distro up to speed?

The CLI team hang out in #debian-cli on OFTC.  Packaging help is always
appreciated, and we're pretty friendly there :).  That said, there's a
*lot* of policy and technical work involved in updating Mono.  There are
probably still some Debian patches to test if they're still needed and
forward-port, which would potentially be suitable for someone without a
familiarity with the vagaries of Mono packaging.

Chris
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 490 bytes
Desc: This is a digitally signed message part
URL: <https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel-discuss/attachments/20110320/e25416f7/attachment.sig>