Re: tetex-bin: rename texconfig => tex-config; consistent with other utilities

[Frank Küster <frank@kuesterei.ch>]

Jari Aalto <jari.aalto@cante.net> wrote:

> | tags 306089 wontfix
> | > It would be good if the configuration program name was consistent
> | > with the other programs like apt-config, fvwm-config, gtk-config ...
> | > so please rename
> | 
> | I cannot see a consistent naming here.  In fact in /usr/bin there are
> | only two without the dash on my system (vs. 12 with it).  On the other
> | hand, in /usr/sbin there are 11 without it vs. 3 with a dash, and in
> | /sbin there are only four, all without dash.
> | 
> | Furthermore, I'm quite sure that Thomas Esser, the author of teTeX, will
> | refuse the renaming.  Do you agree that we better close this bug?
>
> If possible, please reconsider. While the situation is now mixed the
> other authors have been contacted to think the naming. I believe
> if would be good to have consitent naming accross all the programs.

If this is a mass bug filing, have you asked on debian-devel before
doing this? CC'ing.

Anyway, I don't see the advantage of changing names here:

- If you know that there is some *config program for package foo, you'll
  probably find it whether it has a dash or not - simply type foo TAB,
  and there you are.

- If you don't know that the program exists, it doesn't matter at all.  

- You trade one inconsistency for the other.  teTeX's binaries are
  consistently named *without* dashes, /except/ for the new tools
  fmtutil-sys, updmap-sys and texconfig-sys.  In this case the extension
  has a specific meaning (system-wide as opposed to per-user) that
  relates foo-sys to foo.  Of course this is not the case for a possible
  tex-config.  

- It seems to me that you want to force a consistency in naming upon a
  bunch of things which in fact isn't consistent with in functionality.
  For some programs of packages, the *config executable is the main or
  even only way to sensibly change things (except editing conffiles),
  for others it's just for a specific purpose, or still experimental.
  Or from a different package...

  texconfig is by no means *the* canonical way to change settings in a
  TeX system.  Frankly speaking, I have never used it except when bug
  reports came in about it...

Are you going to request renaming of /usr/bin/*conf to *-config, too?
Come on, find yourself a task that really brings us forward.

Regards, Frank

P.S. currently not subscribed to -devel
-- 
Frank Küster
Inst. f. Biochemie der Univ. Zürich
Debian Developer