Re: multiple infrastructure issues / support bottlenecks

[bill-auger]

On Mon, 06 Mar 2023 20:01:06 +1100 Ben wrote:
> I've merged a similar change which uses `pip install
> --editable` instead of `setup.py develop`. I've removed the `--upgrade`
> since it will blast over any system-site-packages.

FWIW, i would also ensure that pip is not strictly needed, that
the user could install the python dependencies manually, or via
the system package manager - third-party package managers such
as pip, are problematic for FSDG distros - hyperbola, trisquel,
and parabola and have already banned them

as you mentioned distro support, those third-party package
managers are the primary reason why most distros do not package
typical webby things - distros prefer to package all
dependencies, not to rely on remote third-party repos at
build-time (repos with paltry licensing standards and no formal
oversight, i should note - that is the FSDG concern)

beyond the acceptable maintenance tasks (correcting for the
conflicting python versions and the autotools regression), the
time i spent on mediagblin so far, was entirely in packaging
it's more exotic python dependencies - i stopped there with a
packaged, but unusable website, because i had not yet packaged
any of the javascript dependencies - probably zero of those are
packaged for any distro - i can only hope that they are few, and
that they are properly licensed, and that it is possible to use
local packages of those dependencies (to avoid using a
javascript package manager at build-time; or i may never
complete the task

that is not a problem only for distros - it is a liability for
mediagoblin also - as an AGPL project, the project is obligated
to provide complete and corresponding source code for everything
needed to build the software - if those third-party repos should
shut down, mediagoblin may no longer be able to satisfy the GPL