Re: Misclassification of packages; "libs" and "doc" sections

[Eray Ozkural <erayo@cs.bilkent.edu.tr>]

IMHO, this isn't an easy problem. The debian way, as you've observed
is not scalable.

Package classification is supposed to address comprehensibility
issues. That is, it must make life easier for users and developers.
Currently, it doesn't do that. If I didn't have actual experience
of many packages, I'd have a hard time finding my way 'round the
debian archive. [searching for keywords in package descriptions
is the only working method to browse the archive, for instance]

I'd like to show [at least] two major problems to be solved:
  * a package may fall in more than one category
  * there may be a hierarchy of categories

You may verify the existence of these problems by inspection.
[I'm too lazy to give examples now ;) ]

I've been working on some proposal for this, but I haven't yet
found good (enough) solutions to these (and other) problems.
I'd brought this subject a few times here, and I don't think
it received much attention (needs too much work, and there
are usually more urgent things to do) Also discussed shortly
on progeny-debian list.

If this software categorization problem has a good solution,
it might have benefits beyond that of an advanced menu system.
(ie, I'd proposed it to organize release management)

I guess this subject should get some theoretical treatment
first because it doesn't seem to be solvable by a few quick
hacks. [In other words, needs some design]

Thanks,

-- 
Eray (exa) Ozkural
Comp. Sci. Dept., Bilkent University, Ankara
e-mail: erayo@cs.bilkent.edu.tr
www: http://www.cs.bilkent.edu.tr/~erayo