Re: [RFC] Promoting the use of "Homepage:" field in debian/control
On Thu, Sep 20, 2007 at 07:05:04AM +0200, Christian Perrier wrote:
> A recent discussion back in August, in -devel, showed that the current
> common trick of using a "Homepage:" pseudo-field in binary packages'
> descriptions is not really optimal.
Indeed. It's formally specified to be used in the description field. So
IMO it definitely belongs into the group control fields instead.
In the worst case I have to get the package and read debian/copyright to
find out where about the upstream's home page.
> In the discussion, it was pointed that dpkg, as of 1.14.6, supports
> the use of a "Homepage:" field in debian/control.
>
> As a consequence, it seems logical to promote the use of that field
> and recommend abandoning "Homepage" paragraphs in packages'
> description.
>
> As, in the Smith review project conducted on debian-l10n-english, we
> review packages' descriptions, we would like to get more input about
> recommending the use of that new field from now.
>
> Are there any reasons *not* to do so (such as other tools that would be
> broken or the like)?
I couldn't think of any.
> Of course, a mass bug-filing could also later happen but that would
> probably be a *huge* bug filing which should be avoided now. Entering
> a transition period where all communication media towards develpers
> are used to suggest switching to the use of this field would be more
> appropriate.
Unless there are any reasons not to use the field someone (tm) should
announce it on debian-devel-announce. Perhaps some time later a mass bug
filing could be done with a "minor" priority.
Having the field easily parseable would definitely make my life easier.
E.g. sponsors could be pointed to the upstream's home page from
mentors.debian.net so they quickly see in advance what application they
are considering to sponsor.
Cheers
Christoph
--
Peer review means that you can feel better because someone else
missed the problem, too.
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