Re: URLs on debian.org/distrib/packages pages
On Thu, 14 Nov 2002, Joey Hess wrote:
> Andreas Tille wrote:
> > Great idea to fire up a browser from an apt frontend!!!
>
> It could be a nice thing, unless it is abused so that you _have_ to look
> at a bunch of web sites to pick what packages to install. Then it just
> becomes annoying, and crippling for those without internet access. Which
> is why I _don't_ want to see it in the package Descriptions.
I agree so far that it is useless for offline users, but there are other
things in Debian which make less sense for those people.
Moreover if there is an invalid URL in the package description this
is by no means useless information: If the URL would be invalid this
could have to reasons:
a) bad maintainance upstream
b) bad maintainance of the Debian package
Both are reasons to think twice about installing the package.
You mentioned in another posting that there might be more than one URL.
This is true, but I regard it as responsibility of the maintainer to
decide which is the most relevant. Others can be mentioned in the
copyright file as usual. Moreover a good web site has links to all
other relevant sites ...
> The last time this came up (3 years ago?), it foundered in concerns
> about packages that have multiple upstream web sites and how to encode
> that in the URI: field, or something silly like that. And I think
> general apathy. Anyway, I'd second a reasonable policy proposal along
> the lines you're suggesting, or along the lines Manoj is suggesting.
> Anything is better than the status quo.
Definitely.
Kind regards
Andreas.
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