Re: Rethinking Qt headers (should the header packages be recombined?)
>>
>> It's as simple as reading README.Debian if something doesn't compile.
>
>hahahahahahha...that's a funny statement. I believe that if we were to
>pole folks out there the README.Debian would be the last place anyone
>would look to find out why something didn't compile. They would first
>assume that they had either the wrong version or that the package they
>downloaded was incomplete.
>
Yes, that is a good one. One thing folloing Debian for the past several
years has taught me was that no one ever reads the README.Debian files.
Seems that about half of the problems I've seen involve not having read
this file. I don't think that most Debian users would even know where to
find these.
Two examples that quickly come to mind are:
A previous KDE packager decided to offer some assistance in getting AA
working on KDE. He packaged a set of needed programs, along with detailed
instructions in the README.Debian file. This resulted in the debian-kde
list getting filled with 'Why isn't AA working?' for almost three months
even though the README.Debian file described, in detail, what had to be
done to try to wrestle AA in.
X is packaged with no fonts required. This is explained in detail in the
README.Debian since X can get fonts from a font server, either local or
over a network connection, therefore fonts are not required for X to run.
Yet, every week or so, another bug report is filed against X due to no
fonts being installed by default. The installation even prints and
explaination of this during install, and people still file the bogus bugs.
I'm sure a quick search of other debian mailing lists would turn up
thousands of other examples of README.Debian files not being read.
In saying that, though, if someone is going to go to the bother and risk of
compiling non-debian apps on their system, this is one way to highlight the
depreciated headers and hopefully getting compaints sent up-stream to get
these fixed. They should certainly be reading any and all README files
before compiling stuff on their box.
Cheers,
John Gay
Reply to: