Re: Bug#215103: ITP: gmasqdialer -- gtk/gnome client for masqdialer server
On Mon, 2003-10-13 at 01:47, David B Harris wrote:
> > If you think 35 characters is too long, feel free to start filing
> > thousands and thousands of bugs on all the other packages, suggesting
> > that they remove little bits and pieces.
>
> (And if you don't, please don't bother people about it - instead file a
> bug on Policy asking for the short description guidelines to
> specifically say "do not mention the application's toolkit".)
I will feel free to comment on ITPs where I feel it's necessary. I
haven't got the time to look through every single package's description,
though I tend to comment on the description of packages I install where
I feel it's necessary.
Dependencies tell you whether a given package runs in a given
environment. The average user does not give a shit whether the program
they are running uses Qt or GTK. (Does your Aunt Tillie reject a Windows
program because it uses the Borland win32 toolkit?) The description
should talk about the capabilities of a package, not its implementation
details. Take these sentences as a set and derive the conclusion, "the
description should not mention toolkits." (At least, for applications.
It's hard for a toolkit to not mention the toolkit.)
A compromise: The fact that the average Debian user might want to know
(in a commonly searchable way) whether a program uses a given toolkit is
reason enough to place it in the long description, along the lines of
"foo is a GNOME application which frobs data especially for Tillie.
[etc]"
--
Joe Drew <hoserhead@woot.net> <drew@debian.org>
My weblog doesn't detail my personal life: http://me.woot.net
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