Re: proficiency-level tag for debian packages
On Tuesday 31 May 2005 19:06, Cesar Martinez Izquierdo wrote:
> El Martes 31 Mayo 2005 19:41, Mark Edgington escribió:
> > Pardon me if this has already been discussed, but I wonder if there
> > should be a tag in debian packages indicating the a minimum proficiency
> > level that a user should have in order for a package to be useful to the
> > user.
> >
> > For example, a package like OpenOffice or Firefox are end-user
> > applications which most users (even those completely unfamiliar with
> > linux) would have a good chance at understanding and being able to use.
> > On the other hand, a package like nmap might not be something my
> > Grandma would be wanting to use every day, and thus it might be better
> > to have a higher proficiency-level rating for such a package.
> >
> > The motivation for such a thing is that it would make it possible for
> > package-management tools to operate in an "easy" mode which would only
> > display (or display in a separate category) packages which have a
> > proficiency-rating < x. This would be very handy in that it would
> > permit using Debian and an apt frontend like synaptic to make it easy
> > for more-or-less "computer-illiterate" people to install new packages
> > which match their skill-level, without having to wade th
> > rough hundreds
> > of libraries and technical tools which they would never use.
> >
> > Perhaps there's a better way to accomplish this, but the ability to
> > limit the display of packages in this manner is something that it seems
> > would be beneficial to have.
> >
> > -Mark
>
> I find it a quite interesting idea. If it was implemented, there should be
> an scale, so that maintainers have some reference in order to tag their
> packages.
This would be rather arbitrary and probably be liable to cause disagreements.
I think you could get much the same affect with some well chosen tags and
debtags. e.g. you could filter on:
command line only tools
enterprise tools (e.g. groupware, RDBMS)
scientific tools (e.g. octave, R)
sysadmin tools (e.g. mrtg)
Alternatively create a custom distro based on Debian with only the required
packages installed by default.
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