Re: Renaming packages

[Evan Prodromou <evan@debian.org>]

>>>>> "WB" == William Ballard <40311.nospam@comcast.net> writes:

    Me> 'terminal' is not part of the GNUstep environment the way
    Me> gnustep-make or gnustep-gui are. It's an application that uses
    Me> GNUstep.

    WB> I appeal to your sense of fair play. Many others would like
    WB> such names. They refrain from using them out of respect for
    WB> others.

This is the way I understand your frame of reference: Debian
maintainers (or perhaps the packages themselves, anthropomorphized)
are in a struggle for the hearts and minds of Debian users. Each wants
more installations, more usage, and more mindshare, but also feels
bound through camaraderie or fear of mutually assured destruction to
keep to certain rules about the fight: not deleting other packages,
not maliciously introducing conflicts, not gouging out each others'
eyes or crushing their fingers with a claw hammer.

I guess I just don't subscribe to this model of Debian. I don't really
see Debian packages, nor package maintainers, in competition. I
realize that thinking this way seems to make some people make better
packages or better software, but I think it's at best a motivational
trick.

If there's another package or pseudo-package that needs the name
'terminal', I'm all ears.

    WB> What if somebody comes out with a package called
    WB> Word-Processor, and the upstream application is really called
    WB> Word-Processor?  Would they be in the right?

Well, I think it would have to be 'word-processor', but otherwise,
yes, absolutely.

~ESP

-- 
Evan Prodromou
evan@debian.org