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Re: Pre-Announcing Emacspeak 97++
I'm glad to hear about the new release.
Just last weekend I finished and uploaded a Debian package for
Emacspeak-5.0. With that experience fresh in my mind, I have two
small requests concerning the new Emacspeak release.
First, please arrange for the .tar file to unpack into a subdirectory,
not into the current directory. For the Debian packaging system, the
source .tar file must unpack into a subdirectory. It is no trouble
for me to repeat the tar operation. That's what I did for 5.0.
However, it means that the .tar file I submit to the Debian archives
is no longer exactly the same (with the same cryptographic checksum as
calculated by md5sum) as what you distribute. A user cannot verify
quite so easily that the file has not been tampered with.
Second, please give the new distribution a conventional version number
like 5.1 or 6.0. Debian version numbers follow the upstream version
numbers, and the Debian package management system tries to ensure that
users do not downgrade packages. emacspeak-97 is certainly an upgrade
of emacspeak-5.0. However, what are you going to do in three more
years? emacspeak-00 would *not* seem to be an upgrade of
emacspeak-97. Yes, a little explanation and manual system
administration will handle the issue. However, for the new user, it
is just one more obstacle to overcome.
There is a precedent for nicnames as well as official
version numbers. The last Slackware release was called "Slackware
96", but it also had an official version number of 3.1. The beta test
version has the number 3.2.
Incidently, the Debian package has not shown up on mirrors yet, but I
think it was in time to be included in the next official release,
which will be Debian 1.3.
- Jim Van Zandt