[moin-devel] moin2 release with core functionality

[Paul Boddie]

On Monday, 14 August 2023 22:17:24 CEST Ulrich B. wrote:
> 
> many owners of a moin 1.9 wiki are waiting for a moin replacement based
> on Python3. If we limit the functionality of moin2 to the core features
> of moin1.9, IMO it should be possible to move to beta status or even
> better create a release candidate. For example, we can allow moinwiki
> markup and disable all other markup languages in the default
> configuration. They will then be treated as experimental.

Certainly, focus on the core features might help get the software into a state 
that people will be comfortable with. I shouldn't comment too substantially 
about this, though, since I have only been doing superficial testing of Moin 
2, as discussed below. For all I know, it might be stable and usable enough 
already.

> Wiki owners can test if they can migrate their wiki data to moin2. This
> could be an option to get more people interested in the development and
> to push the release of moin2.

I agree that migration is a great way of exposing deficiencies and making 
people more interested. When I converted the Mailman wiki from Confluence to 
Moin, I found that converting content exposed many things that I then had to 
fix, and doing so in bulk rather accelerated the process, highlighting 
multiple areas of improvement simultaneously.

> What is your opinion about this idea? I look forward to your feedback.

I think I saw that you had updated the Moin wiki with instructions for 
installing Moin 2 on Debian. In fact, Debian packages have been created for 
Moin 2 already, but we didn't manage to get them into the latest stable 
release. At the moment, they are parked here:

https://salsa.debian.org/moin-team/

(Ignore the "old" repositories.)

What we really need to do is to generate packages for people who don't want to 
build them independently. I have also been packaging some other software for 
Debian and have used the "CI" facilities in the Salsa service which can build 
packages and test them, but I don't think such CI-built packages are published 
anywhere. Maybe such automated publishing can be done another way, though.

I have performed cursory testing on the Moin packages and was able to get a 
Moin site up and running in a Debian unstable environment, so I have some 
confidence in the basic functionality.

Paul