Re: What about use xml for descriptions of packages?
Am Sonntag, den 25.05.2008, 14:40 +0200 schrieb Fernando Cerezal:
> I'm thinking about advantages and disadvantages of write the
> description of the packages using XML.
I like XML but it's a huge pain to write by hand. The current format is
easy to read, easy to write and easy to parse. This is important and
definitely not the case if it is XML.
> I think using XML the descriptions can be rendered in different form
> for text and graphical tools.
If this something that is really needed, one could think about more sane
such as allowing Markdown[1] for Description field. I thought about that
for a while now but never really saw the need to have formatted text or
code examples in a package description. IMHO those just do not belong
there. And for cases where links are needed, special fields as the
Homepage field exists which are properly shown in most tools.
> As disadvantage, we will need to develop a robot that do format for
> the current descriptions and translations and we will have to review
> all of them. Ciertainly, this will be an huge job.
I'd rather convince people to adpot a new format, not to decide for them
whether they want it or not. Change by evolution, not revolution.
> However, I think the current scheme of descriptions is very limitied
> and is better to do it earlier than translate more descriptions and
> then move all to a new format in the future.
I still do not see why the current scheme is limited. Can you give
examples where special markup or links in the texts may be useful?
Best regards
Manuel
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markdown
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