Re: Packages descriptions review
Clément Stenac wrote:
> When several packages have more or less the same goal (in the news case,
> there are many news grabers and local servers), should their
> descriptions include a comparison to the other ones ?
I'd say yes: This information will be /very/ useful to the user.
>
> I don't think we can ask the maintainers to compare (and keep this
> comparisons up to date) their packages to the similar ones, but I agree
> that in some cases, it could be useful for the user.
After thinking about it for a while, I think a package's description
should list some of the key features that make it different from the
rest of the packages that do similar things. When there is only one
package doing the same thing, this pretty much means comparing them.
When there are a bunch of similar pacakges --- say, text editors ---
then it means listing the things that make this package unique.
Looking back, it's pretty clear that the news fetchers aub, brag, nget,
etc. are in the editor case. Leafnode and sn (sn even mentions leafnode)
and maybe even cnews might be in the other case.
I think it's clear that they need to have some comparison. Read the
descriptions of leafnode and sn, and try and answer the following
hypothetical:
I'm setting up a news server for a small firmw with ten
employees. They are on a DSL line, and do not have in-
house experience administering news servers. Which is
best to install: leafnode, sn, or something else?
You can't answer that without either going out on the web and searching,
or installing each and trying it.
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