On Tue, Mar 02, 2010 at 11:05:14AM +0100, Raphael Hertzog wrote:
> > 0) (Starting intuition) most source package have a description per se,
> > intuitively, that is the same description you'd find on the upstream
> > homepage that made you download a specific software. Sure different
> > binary packages can have different specific purpose, but it is in
> > most cases possible to have a single all-encompassing description.
>
> Should that description be exported in the .dsc then ?
It is not clear to me what would be the pro/cons of having the
description there, so I cannot tell. However, if the rationale of the
current information in .dsc is currently "all source package information
are there", then yes, it would make sense (even though I don't care that
much).
> [ Skipping tools that would benefit from the information ]
Fair enough. Still, for the others interesting to comment on this
wishlist bug report, please check the original bug report to know which
tools and infrastructure parts would benefit. It is quite a relevant set
of tools.
> > 2) A frequent pattern in debian/control is as follows:
<snip>
> If I do something like that it's rather with substvars. You could use
> ${source:Description:body} and ${source:Description:title} in the binary
> package description to refer to the the corresponding parts of the source
> description.
That it *can* be currently implemented using substvars is clear. As
usual however, there is a trade-off between expressivity of the current
tool set (i.e. it can be done) and convenience (i.e. how easy it is). I
believe currently no one is doing that, but I'm also convinced that if
supported out of the box it will become a quite handy feature to reduce
information duplication and be kind with various parts of our toolchain.
> I think it's ok. But some more feedback would be welcome, CCing -devel
> for this.
Thanks for the feedback and for the initiative.
Cheers.
--
Stefano Zacchiroli -o- PhD in Computer Science \ PostDoc @ Univ. Paris 7
zack@{upsilon.cc,pps.jussieu.fr,debian.org} -<>- http://upsilon.cc/zack/
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