Re: Octave Central (or something like that)

[Paul Kienzle]

On Mar 9, 2007, at 10:25 AM, Søren Hauberg wrote:

> Paul Kienzle skrev:
>
> > Some desirable features:
> > * Signed packages.
> What is that?

MD5 checksums.  We already have this I believe.

> > * Author email associated with each package (though not necessarily 
> > visible).
> When you create a user in drupal you have to give an email address. So 
> we'll always have the email of whoever uploaded a file. Is that 
> enough?

I want to encourage people to maintain their own packages so getting 
bug reports by mail is helpful.  If I have to check for reports it 
won't happen.

> > * Only authors/administrators can update/remove packages --- we can 
> > avoid passwords if package updates are confirmed by email.
> We can have several user roles:
>   1) Administrators: users that get to change the core of the drupal 
> setup.
>   2) Packagers: people allowed to upload files and create/alter pages.
>   3) Normal users: people allowed to alter pages (i.e. update 
> documentation).
>
> Users that are not logged in will only have read-only access.

I really hate having accounts, particularly if I only use them rarely.  
Since most contributions will be one-offs, this is a high barrier to 
entry.  I'm envisioning a system that allows you to post a package, 
giving your e-mail address.  The system will then send you an email 
asking you to confirm that you are adding the package.
Can Drupal do this?

> > * Issue tracking is useful so long as it is simple, and the submitter 
> > doesn't have to have an account.
> I don't know if drupal has support for this. But perhaps we should use 
> the SF system? (It's enabled now, but not really used).

I think we will want one tracker per package.  I don't know if SF can 
handle this nicely.

> > * A talk page for each package might be enough, particularly if it is 
> > echoed to the author email address.
> Users that are logged in can comment on individual packages.

Again, barrier to entry problems.

> > * Precompiled binaries for Windows and OS X.
> We "just" need somebody to do it :-)

Just suggesting what would be useful...

- Paul