Updates to the sources.debian.net editor

Debconf is a great opportunity to meet people in real life, to express and share ideas in a different way, and to work on all sort of stuff.

I therefore spent some time to finish a couple of features in the editor for sources.debian.net. Here are some of the changes:

• Compare the source file with that of another version of the package
• And in order to present that: tabs! editor tabs!
• at the same time: generated diffs are now presented in a new editor tab, from where you can download it or email it

Get it for chromium, and iceweasel.

If your browser performs automatic updates of the extensions (the default), you should soon be upgraded to version 0.1.0 or later, bringing all those changes to your browser.

Want to see more? multi-file editing? in-browser storage of the editing session? that and more can be done, so feel free to join me and contribute to the Debian sources online editor!

Call for release goal: package reconsideration

Based on a discussion around breakfast, and encouraged by the people at the table, I hereby call for a new release goal (or challenge, whatever you prefer to call it):


Every package maintainer should remove one of their packages from the archive.


It's dead simple. It is acceptable to adopt a package to replace the one that has been removed, or to add a new one to the archive.
For tracking purposes please include "for RG" (release goal) in the removal request to ftp.debian.org.


And how about a debconf challenge? how about filing over 100 removal requests before the end of Debconf 15 on Saturday night? blog about it, dent/twit about it, spam IRC about it!


The idea came up after discussing about how us as package maintainers refuse to remove our obsolete or unused packages. So yes, that may also include the very first package that you got into the archive.


Sad news, good news.

Incompetence

I don't know most of my passwords

I don't know most of my email addresses


But I do know which site shared my email address with spammers

On using https mirrors

On confidentiality:

So that they don't know what's inside

Updates to the Debian sources editor

Since the announcement of the chrome/chromium and firefox/iceweasel extensions that add in-browser editing of Debian sources there have been a few changes:

• Update to Ace 1.1.9, which brings quite some fixes
• Downloads with proper file names! this should work with recent browsers. E.g for a patch it will propose package-version_path_file.patch
• Changing the order of additions and removals in the generated patches (it was strange to see additions first)
• Improvements to the compatibility with debsources' URL parameters
• Allow the extension to be enabled in private browsing mode (firefox/iceweasel)
• Loading of the extension when browsing debsources via https
• Internal extension packaging cleanup, including the generation of a versioned copy of the web (remote) files, so that users of version 0.0.x do use the remote code version 0.0.x

If your browser performs automatic updates of the extensions (the default), you should soon be upgraded to version 0.0.10 or later, bringing all those changes to your browser.

Want to see more? multi-file editing? emacs and vim editing modes? in-browser storage of the modified files? that and more can be done, so feel free to join me and contribute to the Debian sources editor!

Special guest for the Lyon minidebconf, 2015

It appears that this year's MiniDebconf in Lyon, France is going to have a very special guest. After enjoying so much the Q&A held at Debconf14, Linus Torvalds has decided to make a quick detour from a trip to Europe to bring the opportunity for another session with the Debian community.

The event has yet to appear in the MiniDebconf agenda. Rumor has it that the hurds of fans that tend to attend his events pose a logistics and safety challenge, reason why the event might only appear in the agenda a couple of days before the event.
Lyon being such an easy place to get by train, flight, car, and even by boat, it is understandable and should be expected that a great number of people attend the minidebconf only for his very session.

If you have not yet registered, I'd recommend you to do so now and to book your travel and accommodation ASAP, before everything is overpriced due to high demand.

See you in ten days!

P.S. kudos to the organizers!

Edit Debian, with iceweasel

Soon after publishing the chromium/chrome extension that allows you to edit Debian online, Moez Bouhlel sent a pull request to the extension's git repository: all the changes needed to make a firefox extension!

After another session of browser extensions discovery, I merged the commits and generated the xpi. So now you can go download the Debian online editing firefox extension and hack the world, the Debian world.

Install it and start contributing to Debian from your browser. There's no excuse now.