Comment 4 for bug 249417

1) Please look at the website link given.
It says;

"The latest version available is 0.0.2, which was released on March 11th, 2005."

2) re http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=291071

This contains the following statements

Quote -

"
From: Loïc Minier <email address hidden>
To: Andrew Lau <email address hidden>,
 Ludovic Rousseau <email address hidden>, <email address hidden>
Subject: Re: ITP: cupid -- GStreamer based video/audio capture tool
Date: Sun, 26 Feb 2006 13:16:44 +0100

        Hi,

On Wed, Jan 19, 2005, Andrew Lau wrote:
> * Package name : cupid
> Version : 0.0.1

 The package is more or less abandoned upstream, are people still
 interested in this package or can the RFP be closed?

   Cheers,

--
Loïc Minier <email address hidden>
Current Earth status: NOT DESTROYED

Information forwarded to <email address hidden>, <email address hidden>:
Bug#291071; Package wnpp. Full text and rfc822 format available.
Acknowledgement sent to Ludovic Rousseau <email address hidden>:
Extra info received and forwarded to list. Copy sent to <email address hidden>. Full text and rfc822 format available.

Message #27 received at <email address hidden> (full text, mbox):

From: Ludovic Rousseau <email address hidden>
To: Loïc Minier <email address hidden>
Cc: Andrew Lau <email address hidden>, <email address hidden>
Subject: Re: ITP: cupid -- GStreamer based video/audio capture tool
Date: Sun, 26 Feb 2006 16:43:07 +0100

Le Sunday 26 February 2006 à 13:16:44, Loïc Minier a écrit:
> Hi,
>
> On Wed, Jan 19, 2005, Andrew Lau wrote:
> > * Package name : cupid
> > Version : 0.0.1
>
> The package is more or less abandoned upstream, are people still
> interested in this package or can the RFP be closed?

If the software is dead upstream it is a more or less stupid to package
it for Debian. I guess a better alternative will surface (or already
did).

Bye,

--
 Dr. Ludovic Rousseau <email address hidden>
 -- Normaliser Unix c'est comme pasteuriser le camembert, L.R. --

"
UnQuote

Though both those statement were made in 2006,
they both rely on information that was dated

"On Wed, Jan 19, 2005, Andrew Lau wrote:
> * Package name : cupid
> Version : 0.0.1"

So ...
only two months after they were saying that the project was
"Dead"
and was
"Stupid to include it in Debian",
the project somehow resurrected itself and created the next version (ie 0.0.2) .

3) Just because a program has not been updated for some time, does not mean that it is "dead", does not mean that it is of no use.
Just look at some of the system programs (e.g. grub), which have been around for a long time, an ddo not get updated very often.
Why.
Because they are so reliable they do not need to be tampered with.
The next versions tend to be quite a leap, several years later, when technologies have changed or improved.

This program makes an important connection between video capture and GStreamer,
which will help[ improve the flexibility of multimedia platforms in Ubuntu.

If Debian wish to remain behind the times because they prefer to depend on information which is out of date, and easily verified (At the projects home site), then let them. But Ubuntu does not have to follow suit.

Please reconsider this submission.

4) Also, in other cases where projects have not updated versions for a long time, it might be worth checking if they have stopped at the unstable, or early stages, or on the other hand, if the program is stable and has been in use for some time with no significant bug reports (and maybe with numerous downloads).
(Programs that do not get included in repos can expect to be less popular, because they are not in repos.)

Thank you.