Re: New lintian warning: vcs-deprecated-in-debian-infrastructure

[Ben Finney <bignose@debian.org>]

Markus Koschany <apo@debian.org> writes:

> Am 22.03.2018 um 15:40 schrieb Guillem Jover:
> > I'd very strongly object to completely moving those fields out of
> > the source packages [&.3] I'll happily take outdated data than no
> > data any day, because usually you can use that outdated data to
> > trace your way to the current one, not so if it's missing.
>
> You need online access to make use of the above information in any
> way.

That's not true; you are incorrect in thinking that exhausts the common
uses of that information. For example:

> If you want to contact the maintainer you need internet access

With the maintainer email address, I do not need internet access to
compose an email message. Without that information I can't.

> if you want to visit the upstream homepage you need internet access

With the upstream home page URL, I do not need internet access to
bookmark a URL. Without that URL I can't.

> etc.

So, there are plenty of uses for information that do not require
internet access *at the time of using* the information.

Yes, some uses do require internet access; that doesn't eliminate all
usefulness of the information.

So, I concur with Guillem: This information is closely tied to the
source package, and the source package becomes less useful (lack of
imagination notwithstanding :-) by taking that information away from the
source package.

There may be good arguments for removing that information from the
source package. But let's dispose now of the “it's no use” claim;
that's simply false, so some other justification will be needed.

-- 
 \       “If consumers even know there's a DRM, what it is, and how it |
  `\     works, we've already failed.” —Peter Lee, Disney corporation, |
_o__)                                                             2005 |
Ben Finney