2c about the development of ubuntu

[Matt Zimmerman]

On Tue, Jan 03, 2006 at 12:28:03AM +0100, Loïc Martin wrote:
> Matt Zimmerman a écrit :
> 
> >Another reason is that we receive conflicting reports about which system
> >is most appropriate for Ubuntu, and don't have the wherewithal to decide
> >due to the previous reason.
> >
> Since it seems there's only hope for Dapper now, I'd like to know if you
> receive other reports than these on this list and on the forums. From what
> I've read till know, the reports didn't seem so conflicting - in fact,
> even the people using UIM (AFAIK the only other option with scim atm)
> where agreeing that for most languages UIM wouldn't be a choice and that
> their own language was supported enough so they wouldn't mind Ubuntu
> shipping with scim in main.  It was also pointed that nothing prevents
> Ubuntu to ship with two methods included by default, the user can switch
> to the one he prefers if he really mind the default one between the two.
> This last solution would still be far better than offering nothing to Joe
> user. I mean, Jim user in this case.

If you feel strongly about this situation, here are some things you can do
to help:

- Find out what is necessary to integrate scim 'out of the box' in Ubuntu (I
  assume more is necessary than just to install it)

- Write a feature specification explaining what work needs to be done to
  integrate it, and submit it to the spec tracker for review (set the
  approver to be me): https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+specs

- Write main inclusion reports for scim and any of its dependencies which
  are not in main, and submit them for review:
  https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuMainInclusionQueue

- Help diagnose the bugs reported in Malone which make the current package
  unacceptable in terms of quality.  In many cases the cause is not clear,
  and assistance from someone more familiar with scim would be appreciated.

> So if the position is still : We can't do anything because "we receive
> conflicting reports about which system is most appropriate for Ubuntu" I
> think we as non English input users might want to know why. Is there any
> new information that lead you to think that you still can't decide?
> Because if it's based on the same reports I've read, I would have a hard
> time to understand what was not clear in the discussion? Or why defaulting
> to scim (while still allowing the few users that said they could use scim
> but preferred uim to go back to uim) would be worse than offering nothing
> with Dapper?

In addition, as you point out, the current package is reportedly broken, and
no one with the necessary skills seems interested in fixing it.

> >Second, while two weeks may seem like a lot of time for a particular bug
> >or two, bear in mind that the development team is extremely busy during
> >releases, just with the normal preparatory work.  scim didn't change at
> >all in Breezy for at least two months before release as part of the
> >normal freeze process.
> >
> As Far As I Remember scim broke everything as soon as Colony 3 release. 
> I don't know the time schedule between Colony 3 and Breezy release, but 
> if you're going to make changes between Colony 2 and 3, you might as 
> well plan a long enough time to fix the new bugs.

We didn't.  Ubuntu has been using Debian's scim package, unmodified, since
before the Hoary release.

-- 
 - mdz