Contact software developers when adding a port

[Jordan K. Hubbard]

On Dec 15, 2010, at 12:37 PM, Ryan Schmidt wrote:

> I think his suggestion is a good one. I especially think it bears mentioning that when you write a new portfile, you should contact the developer and let them know that. This prepares them for the day that a user sends them a message that says "I installed your software with MacPorts" and prevents them from then having to wonder "What's MacPorts?" or "How did my software get in there?" If the developer has a list of places from which to get their software, this also gives them an opportunity to add MacPorts to the list, thus even improving our publicity. I realize I've done this for some ports I've written, but it hasn't occurred to me to do so when handling port submissions in the issue tracker, and it seems like maybe this is a step that should be handled by the port author, not the committer (though it would certainly be reasonable for the committer handling the ticket to remind the submitter to do this step).

While I agree with those who say that this would be impractical to expect as a matter of policy (sometimes the upstream developer isn't even identifiable or contactable), it might help your case if you could draft a sample form letter to send to developers, just as a possible courtesy, and stick it on the MacPorts.org site somewhere.  Then those who really do want to do "the right thing", whatever that may be, as well as those for whom english may be a second language, can simply grab the form letter and send it off without having to even think too much about it.  Another advantage of this approach is that MacPorts communications become more standardized and professional-looking (no "Dude!  I p0rted YER KODE!!" sorts of messages).

- Jordan

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