How to resolve a technical conflict

[Perry E. Metzger]

So an instance of something that hasn't happened much has appeared,
and I'd like some guidance both on the individual instance and on the
problem in general.

Our gpg2 port currently depends on building the entirety of the
openldap infrastructure. gpg2 optionally can use openldap for
retrieving keys, but _*almost no one does this*_. It strikes me as
unpleasant and wasteful to have a substantial dependency that
almost no one uses or cares about; at least a variant that doesn't
require openldap would seem to be in order. However, the port
maintainer doesn't want to have a variant that doesn't depend on
openldap. He thinks things are fine as they are.

1. How does one adjudicate this particular dispute?
2. How does one adjudicate such disagreements in general?

At the moment, our process gives a port maintainer absolute say over
how a port is maintained, but I don't think that's always reasonable.
However, we have no mechanism for settling a disagreement.

Perry
-- 
Perry E. Metzger		pmetzger at macports.org