Re: Debian Metadata Proposal -- draft rev.1.4
Marco, I read over your response again, and I'm trying to make sense
of it.
As I read what you want, it's the following:
a) metadata colocated in the directory of the documentation
b) identifiers for files given relative to the location of the
metadata file
c) no centralized store at all, no API
d) ddh data centrally located, stored in a documented syntax
I don't really have any problem with (d) at all.
As for (a-c). For one, less work for me as doc-base maintainer, the
better. So that's a plus.
Minuses:
1) how to find the definative list of metadata files? Impose a file
naming convention like *.docreg ?
2) where would metadata files which refer, i.e., to offsite materials
such as www.debian.org, reside?
3) the format would be highly restricted, in syntax and symantics. No
decoupling between display systems and how metadata is encoded.
Any change in the docreg file would mean all display systems would
have to be hacked to deal with the new format.
4) also following from (3), no way to transition a new format into
place. No way to deal with some files being in one format and one
in another without a lot of parsing changes in all display systems
5) coupling the identifier with the docreg file location seems messy
to me.
6) Not a scalable system.
7) Not well suited for an "indirection" method, whereby local
documentation could be supplemented by documents at a central
location like the DDP. This is important when you think about
debiandoc-sgml and the capability to refer to metadata identifiers
from within SGML.
8) Not well suited to say, using metadata to organize a Debian
Documentation centralized site (i.e., DDP next generation)
9) Not well suited for transition to URN scheme (my scheme as it
stands has problems as well there)
Conceptually, the docreg file is just a file which is used to transmit
metadata from a package into the system. We should have flexibility
in how it is encoded, and what we allow. File position of the docreg
file is another contingency which shouldn't have any deep binding
with the contents or interpretation of any content.
If you can address these concerns, then lets do it. Until then, I'm
going to beef mine up a little too.
--
.....A. P. Harris...apharris@onShore.com...<URL:http://www.onShore.com/>
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