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Re: concensus on removing TeX and Emacs from standard



On Fri, Dec 31, 1999 at 12:03:02AM -0800, Robert Woodcock wrote:
> Hello, I think TeX and Emacs should no longer be standard.

I think the whole priority/section setup in Debian is completely hopeless.
It should be dropped and replaced by some more advanced keyword/grouping
mechanism with some intelligence, which answers questions like: What should
I install if I want Gnome with Windowmaker? Enlightenment and a Graphic
Suite? a text processor? A development GUI?

"optional" is too big, "extra" not well defined, "standard" too heavyweight
(people having different opinions). Only essential and required have a well
defined meaning. "Standard" could survive in some sort of recommendation.
"base" is going to be dropped, devel contains libs and docs, docs contains
text and programs, "math" contains "science", "misc" and "utils" are almost
indistinguishable. "otherosfs" is cryptic. We have very specific sections
("editors", "shells", "hammradio") and catch all buckets ("base", "admin",
"devel", "libs", "doc", "x11", "graphics").

Let's face it, it's a huge mess. Fixing this should be one of our highest
priorities. It was a good solution when Debian was about a few hundred
packages, but with a few thousand packages it's not helpful but a hindrance.
I am not opposed to some sort of evaluation (like standard, optional,
extra), but it should be part of a useful tool and no main criteria. A list
of keywords for example would be much more helpful.

In a related matter we need to cut down the number of displayed packages.
Shared libraries could be handled more automated, and packages could be
grouped like this:

gtk: [X] shared library
     [ ] header files, static library
     [ ] documentation

emacs19: [X] binary
         [ ] .el files
         [X] info doc

or whatever. I am sure everyone here has many ideas how to do such things.

Thanks,
Marcus

-- 
`Rhubarb is no Egyptian god.' Debian http://www.debian.org Check Key server 
Marcus Brinkmann              GNU    http://www.gnu.org    for public PGP Key 
Marcus.Brinkmann@ruhr-uni-bochum.de,     marcus@gnu.org    PGP Key ID 36E7CD09
http://homepage.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/Marcus.Brinkmann/       brinkmd@debian.org


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