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On 05/05/2015 09:56 PM, Mike Bayer wrote:
> Having two packages that both install into the same name is the least
> ideal arrangement

 From your point of view, and for testing against both, certainly. But 
for a distribution, avoiding dot have 2 packages clashing each other and 
deciding on only a single implementation of the same API is so much 
better in many ways. This avoid the duplication of work, security 
support, and above all: this makes it possible for all reverse 
dependency to just use the new implementation without doing anything.

> and I don't see why we have to settle for a mediocre
> outcome like that.  What we want is MySQL-Python to be maintained, we
> have a maintainer, we have the code, we have everything we need, except
> a password. We should at least make an attempt at that outcome.

A fork is often the worst thing that can happen to a project. See the 
examples of libav vs ffmpeg, libreoffice vs openoffice, or mysql vs 
mariadb. At the end, end users and developers all suffer. The only thing 
we can do is pickup the implementation which we believe is best for us. 
And in this case, it looks like mysqlclient has python3 support, which 
we want as a feature.

If you believe you can make it so that either:
#1 mysql-python can get Python 3 support.
#2 both forks are re-merged, and maintained as one.

then that's the best possible outcome (especially #2).

Whatever happens, talking to both upstream seems a very good idea to me.

However, it may not be possible to revert what has (or is about to) 
happen in Debian, as this is the decision of the package maintainer. I 
don't think it would be a good idea to go up to the Debian technical 
committee if the maintainer of the python-mysqldb package doesn't do 
something we like. The only other option we'd have would be to 
re-introduce mysql-python as a separate package, but the Debian FTP 
masters may oppose to it and reject it, unless we have a very good 
reason to do so (and at this point, I don't know if we do...).

Hoping the above helps with Debian insights,
Cheers,

Thomas Goirand (zigo)