Re: GNU projects using GitHub.

[Jean Louis]

* Po Lu <luangruo@yahoo.com> [2021-10-25 08:07]:
> Jean Louis <bugs@gnu.support> writes:
> 
> > I do not see that as problem as they contribute free software to GNU
> > project. 
> >
> > If they use some online proprietary software, that is their
> > decision. People may also use proprietary software on their computer
> > and be in proprietary operating system and create free software.
> >
> > What is important is to create free software, their contributions are
> > as such appreciated.
> >
> > Developers do get aware about Github gradually, there are many issues
> > and many developers move away from it. 
> 
> I was asking for a clarification of GNU project policy.
> 
> As I mentioned earlier, 
> https://www.gnu.org/software/repo-criteria-evaluation.html
> lists GitHub as unacceptable for hosting of GNU software.

I know well. I don't support Github, neither recommend it, just like
you. But I don't enforce it.

That is Repo Criteria Evaluation. 

Here is GNU Coding Standards:
https://www.gnu.org/prep/standards/standards.html

Any "Git" or any other version control system accessible on Internet I
do not consider as "release", it is "source" though not the source of
the release. I hope you get me.

Github contributed to the confusion.

Git is for development. Even on Github one may find "releases" and
software developer who understand the difference offer the "release"
which means sources and binaries of specific version.

Git is for development, but not for distribution. Fetching from Git is
IMHO dangerous, as you never know if it is stable or not. It is
development version, and yet many distributions rely on Git like it is
"stable", which it is not. 

Thus when considering ethical distribution of software, one shall
rather look if the RELEASED SOURCE is on a WWW (http) server and
accessible without using non-free software. Though I do not speak for
GNU, it is my personal opinion.

And where is exactly the DEVELOPMENT SOURCE version it is up to
developers to decide, even though such may be accessible to public, I
do not consider such as final source, unless it is somewhere
designated to be final.

Then majority of GNU software is downloaded from GNU.ORG server. 

In this case https://www.gnu.org/s/radio redirects to
https://www.gnuradio.org/ the web page which is not standard GNU
according to my expectations as I cannot find "Download" easy. Not in
first menu, but in second menu "Getting Started" I can find
installation link:
https://wiki.gnuradio.org/index.php/InstallingGR#From_Source then I
find how to install the Master branch:

https://wiki.gnuradio.org/index.php/InstallingGR#For_GNU_Radio_3.9_and_Master_Branch

and there is note indicating about "stable" release, but I may be
mistaken:

,----
| Note: If you want to build the maint-3.9 branch rather than the
| default master branch, enter: git checkout maint-3.9 and then
`----

So I can just think that maint-3.9 is the stable version, there is no
clear information which version is the stable version.

But that does not prevent me accessing Git server and downloading from
there.

If you follow this thinking, it does not matter to user how is source
or binary downloaded as it it either by web server or git, or
something else.

But for developers and other contributors it may matter as maybe they
need to run some non-free javascript, I would not know.

-- 
Jean

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