[fpc-pascal] FPC 2.4.2 source

[Roland Schäfer]

On 5/21/2011 1:44 PM, Bernd Kreuss wrote:
> They are first making up a non-existing problem (people being "forced"
> to do something they allegedly don't want, although we all know the
> opposite is true and people *always* want a complete and painless
> install to avoid all sorts of problems) and then they are presenting the

I can refute your point about people always wanting complete installs by
simply referring to myself. How do you know what all users of FPC/Laz
always want?

> Just ignore what they [Debian] want. It is not relevant what they
> believe (or guess) what your users might want. Don't let them damage the
> usability and the reputation by listening to them and wasting time
> solving their fantasy problems while this is leading to the creation new
> and very real problems. The sheer existence of this thread (and other
> threads like this and many more) is testifying this.

Debian (and its derivates, to varying degrees) has one big advantage,
viz. its consistent and disciplined package management. I don't see how
giving a damn about their good practices and policies would help to
promote a comparatively small project.

> The Debian maintainers have no expertise in judging what the users of a
> given software really *want*, especially if they don't use it
> themselves. Simply ignore them. Their opinion does not matter. They will
> accept the big package. Don't bow to them, they want something from you,
> not the other way around!

I don't see the problem. FPC/Laz users get what they want on Debian etc.
It's just a matter of how you get it.

And once again, I want to stress that statements like "Their opinion
does not matter." are not only not helpful, but I guess also wrong in
the sense that it does very much matter.

> The windows installer of Lazarus clearly shows how usability looks like.
> This is what users want! There is no reason why this should not be
> possible on Debian also. If Debian policies (or like in this case not
> even the written policies themselves but only the beliefs of some
> overzealous Debian maintainers) are the only thing preventing usability
> from coming true then to hell with them.

I'm not going to refute those universal statements again. The only thing
I can think of that would be a (rather insignificant) usability
improvement for Debian packages would be to have a repository for daily
FPC/Laz snapshots. Otherwise things have always been fine for me.

Best
Roland