From owner-freebsd-ports@freebsd.org Tue Feb 9 20:21:48 2016 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-ports@mailman.ysv.freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:1900:2254:206a::19:1]) by mailman.ysv.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 40024AA32B4 for ; Tue, 9 Feb 2016 20:21:48 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from mailinglists@toco-domains.de) Received: from mailman.ysv.freebsd.org (mailman.ysv.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:1900:2254:206a::50:5]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 2F6781F6C for ; Tue, 9 Feb 2016 20:21:48 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from mailinglists@toco-domains.de) Received: by mailman.ysv.freebsd.org (Postfix) id 2E4D7AA32B3; Tue, 9 Feb 2016 20:21:48 +0000 (UTC) Delivered-To: ports@mailman.ysv.freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:1900:2254:206a::19:1]) by mailman.ysv.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 2DF78AA32B2 for ; Tue, 9 Feb 2016 20:21:48 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from mailinglists@toco-domains.de) Received: from toco-domains.de (mail.toco-domains.de [IPv6:2a01:4f8:150:50a5::6]) (using TLSv1.2 with cipher ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 (256/256 bits)) (Client did not present a certificate) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id F0C681F67; Tue, 9 Feb 2016 20:21:47 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from mailinglists@toco-domains.de) Received: from [192.168.1.55] (x4d0a72c6.dyn.telefonica.de [77.10.114.198]) by toco-domains.de (Postfix) with ESMTPA id ED6BF1B22098; Tue, 9 Feb 2016 21:21:37 +0100 (CET) Subject: Re: Removing documentation To: Greg 'groggy' Lehey References: <20160207000304.GA71035@eureka.lemis.com> <56B72E20.80909@toco-domains.de> <20160208011819.GE71035@eureka.lemis.com> Cc: ports@freebsd.org From: =?UTF-8?Q?Torsten_Z=c3=bchlsdorff?= Message-ID: <56BA2294.1040603@toco-domains.de> Date: Tue, 9 Feb 2016 18:32:04 +0100 User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; FreeBSD amd64; rv:38.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/38.5.0 MIME-Version: 1.0 In-Reply-To: <20160208011819.GE71035@eureka.lemis.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-BeenThere: freebsd-ports@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.20 Precedence: list List-Id: Porting software to FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 09 Feb 2016 20:21:48 -0000 On 08.02.2016 02:18, Greg 'groggy' Lehey wrote: > On Sunday, 7 February 2016 at 12:44:32 +0100, Torsten Zühlsdorff wrote: >> Hello, >> >>>> You have a tool presented as "official" that hasn't had it's >>>> original maintainer in 4 years and was only kept on life support up >>>> until 9 months ago. >>> >>> Agreed, the "official" (the term used is "recommended") status is >>> gone. But that's a reason to fix the documentation, not remove it. >>> As I see it, we have three choices, in increasing order of >>> desirability: >>> >>> 1. Remove all mention of portmaster. That's what this PR recommends. >>> 2. Do nothing. >>> 3. Update the documentation to indicate the current status, >>> recommending alternatives if possible. >> >> Number 4 is missing: find a maintainer for it. > > Yes. It was there in my draft, and I removed it. It's a separate > issue: I was asking here about what to do with documentation for used, > but unmaintained packages. But you make a good point: if there's a > lapse in maintainership, and the product then becomes maintained > again, you don't want to lose the documentation. There is another point hidden: you don't want to lose the software itself. At the moment i'm maintaining a greater number of software (also outside FreeBSD). Every one of it is abandoned but very good. Every one is feature complete and needs just small fixes for example when the compiler requires this or a bug is found. Many software get lost (and later reinvented with all needed maturing) because the author did not maintain it anymore. While i dislike this kind of work we should be fair: there is software which fulfill its purpose of its niche and just need to keep running. Greetings, Torsten