Re: Status of install-info

[Ian Zimmerman <nobrowser@gmail.com>]

Hello,

I am also quite frustrated with the bugs in install-info and the
continuing fork.  But I really don't like the GNU version either (it
seems to still do nothing about aligning the descriptions, for
instance), and two way merging of the stregths of both will be a pain.
I think the right solution is to have some kind of database (see below)
to hold the section structure and then a pure 'presentation' program
maybe /usr/sbin/update-info-dir or similar generates the dir file from
the complete up-to-date structural data.

Now, the dpkg package can't use almost any database library because
it's so high in the dependency chain.  But there's no good reason why
install-info must be in dpkg?  info package is priority important,
install-info doesn't have to be anything higher than that.  So we
could use libdb (required) for the database.

Another possiblity to hold the structure is a XML file.
Unfortunately perl is only standard now.  Hmm, I heard somebody
was on a campaign to make python important or better?  That would
help a lot, python has great XML support.

Nicolas, let me know if you're still interested in this task
(or perhaps already working on it).  Let's rid Debian of this PITA.

-- 
A true pessimist won't be discouraged by a little success.