<name>Manoj Srivastava</name>
<email>srivasta@debian.org</email>
</author>
- <version>$Revision: 1.4 $</version>
+ <version>$Revision: 1.5 $</version>
<copyright>
- <copyrightsummary>
- This document is copyright 1998 Manoj Srivastava. Anyone is
- given permission to distribute this under the Freee software
- foundations General Public Licence, Version 2, or any later
- version, at your convenience.
+ <copyrightsummary>Copyright © 1998 by Manoj Srivastava.
</copyrightsummary>
+ <p>
+ You are given permission to redistribute this document
+ and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public
+ License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either
+ version 2, or (at your option) any later version.</p>
+ <p>
+ On Debian GNU/Linux systems, the complete text of the GNU
+ General Public License can be found in
+ `<var>/usr/doc/copyright/GPL</var>'. </p>
</copyright>
</titlepag>
<chapt>
- <heading>Introduction, and adminstrivia</heading>
+ <heading>Introduction, and Administrivia</heading>
<p>
This is a proposal for creating a process through which the
Debian Policy documents are to be maintained and updated, it
</p>
</sect>
<sect>
- <heading>People Seconding the proposal</heading>
+ <heading>People Seconding the Proposal</heading>
<p>
Well, since Michael Alan Dorman and Richard Braakman have
volunteered to serve on the policy maintainer team, I think
</sect>
</chapt>
<chapt>
- <heading>Archives and personnel</heading>
+ <heading>Archives and Personnel</heading>
<sect>
<heading>The policy maintainers team</heading>
<p>
access to the CVS repository for the Policy documents;
however, this set of people behave more like maintainers
rather than authors/editors. This group does not create
- policy, not does it excersice editorial control, Policy is
+ policy, not does it exercise editorial control, Policy is
decided "upstream". The group that decides on policy should
be the group of developers on the Debian-policy mailing
lists, which is how it was always done; so the group of
</p>
<p>
The repository should contain all the packages under the
- control of the team, and also should have anrea where the
- weekly status document is kep; once the document is under
+ control of the team, and also should have an area where the
+ weekly status document is kept; once the document is under
CVS, it should be a simple matter to script exporting the
document out to a place where the web server can serve it,
as well as create the weekly posting to
- <tt>debian-poilcy</tt> and <tt>debian-devel</tt> mailing
+ <tt>debian-policy</tt> and <tt>debian-devel</tt> mailing
lists. This document could also be kept under CVS then.</p>
</sect>
</chapt>
<chapt>
- <heading>Procedures and processes</heading>
+ <heading>Procedures and Processes</heading>
<sect>
<heading>Proposing amendments to the Policy</heading>
<p>
policy amendment.
</p>
<p>
- The rationale behind the requirement for senconders is that
+ The rationale behind the requirement for seconders is that
it would<enumlist>
<item>
<p>
</item>
<item>
<p>
- Prevent frivoulous or ill concieved proposals from
+ Prevent frivolous or ill conceived proposals from
wasting peoples time (If the proposal does not even
convince two developers, surely this is not ready for
inclusion in Policy?)</p>
</enumlist>
</p>
<sect1>
- <heading>Notifications and status reports</heading>
+ <heading>Notifications and Status Reports</heading>
<p>
Periodically, possibly weekly, a summary of current policy
topics can be posted to the Developers mailing list, as
</sect1>
</sect>
<sect>
- <heading>Deadlines for tabling discussions</heading>
+ <heading>Deadlines for Tabling Discussions</heading>
<p>
It has been observed in the past that discussions on the
mailing list devolve into endless arguments. In order to get
</p>
<p>
If a consensus is reached by the policy group, then the
- maintianers shall enter the amendment into the Policy
+ maintainers shall enter the amendment into the Policy
document, announce the inclusion in the periodic report, and
release a new version.</p>
<sect1>
- <heading>Extensions to deadlines?</heading>
+ <heading>Extensions to Deadlines?</heading>
<p>
If a deadline is approaching, and the discussion s almost
concluded (in other words, it has not reached an impasse),
and the consensus on the policy group is that an extension
of a week would resolve the issues better, a one-time
- extention could be granted. Care should be taken in
+ extension could be granted. Care should be taken in
exercising this option, since abusing this would merely
postpone closures. </p>
</sect1>
<p>
Formerly, arriving at a consensus was the only way to amend
Policy. That worked well when the Project was small,
- however, we have aparently grown out of that phase, and even
+ however, we have apparently grown out of that phase, and even
the policy mailing list has grown more fractious than in the
days of yore. We now need a formal process of deadlock
resolution, and we need to recognize that on non-technical
discussion period is near, then one is faced with a dilemma.
</p>
<sect1>
- <heading>Impasse on technical issues</heading>
+ <heading>Impasse on Technical Issues</heading>
<p>
On technical issues, popularity is a bad way of arriving
at conclusions. Hopefully, the policy group would arrive
may be consulted. This should be a rare occurrence. </p>
</sect1>
<sect1>
- <heading>Non technical and subjective disagreements</heading>
+ <heading>Non Technical and Subjective Disagreements</heading>
<p>
However, if the issue is non-technical and subjective,
then a vote of the developers may be taken (USENET voting
</sect1>
</sect>
<sect>
- <heading>Using the bug tracking system</heading>
+ <heading>Using the Bug Tracking System</heading>
<p>
A fascinating sub proposal has been that we use the bug
tracking system to track policy amendments in progress. If
- this is used, we may intiate discussions in the policy group
+ this is used, we may initiate discussions in the policy group
by filing wish-list bugs (note: this should be open to
anyone at all)</p>
<p>
demoted to (forwarded?) wish list bugs. I like them being
demoted to forwarded status, since the upstream authors (the
policy mailing list) has already had a stab at them, and
- they have been shelved until furhter notice. </p>
+ they have been shelved until further notice. </p>
<p>
I think that the Policy is critical enough for the project
that any real flaws in the policy be automatically be deemed