Re: Please review package description of (open)motif
Paul Gevers wrote:
> [Please keep cc in the loop.]
>
> Currently, Graham and I are working on getting (open)motif [1] in shape
> for inclusion in main. While I was going through the package I was
> unhappy with the current description of the binary packages. I have
> already extended the description of motif-clients, but I would like a
> review of all descriptions.
Okay - I'll start with that and go back to the others, then:
> Package: motif-clients
What does this package name mean, anyway? Is the idea that it's a set
of executables that have a client relationship towards Motif, whatever
that means, or are they just Motif-based tools that happen (obviously)
to be graphical, and therefore (obviously) count as X11 clients?
Either way, it seems an odd way of looking at things. Why would a
user search for and then install this package? If the point of the
exercise is to get a Motif-flavoured X environment, wouldn't it make
more sense to call the package simply "mwm - Motif Window Manager"?
But I'll assume not for now.
[...]
> Description: Motif window manager and virtual key bindings configure client
That is, mwm and xmbind, right? I'm dubious about this expression
"configure client"; I'd be a lot happier with something more like
"configuring utility" or "configuration widget" - or less longwindedly
"setup tool".
Then again, what good is the word "virtual" doing us here? Okay,
virtual key bindings are in software, and this tool doesn't claim to
be capable of changing the physical arrangement of keys, but is that
really a misunderstanding that readers would otherwise be prone to?
Oh... and looking up the man pages I see that the bindings in question
also cover mouse events, so "virtual key bindings" isn't even
pedantically accurate. It's a more general MWM configurator. And
since we've already mentioned MWM we could just say:
Description: Motif window manager and setup tool
But why do we even need to care about xmbind? Most packages that
contain window managers also contain one or two other trivial helper
binaries; but they put the focus in the packagename and synopsis on
the thing that users might actually want to install. So again I'm
back to wondering why this isn't "Description: Motif Window Manager"
(but again that's not in my patch).
> Motif is the industry standard toolkit for *NIX systems. This package
Surely the standard toolkit for *NIX systems is something more like
coreutils? Or if we're talking "graphical" it would be X... should we
perhaps call it "the standard GUI component toolkit for *NIX"?
We could also insert a linebreak to get a paragraph that could fit
neatly at the start of each package description in the set as a
boilerplate intro.
> contains the Motif window manager, which has clear but classical appearance,
"(It) has clear appearance" sounds like it's missing an article.
(Classical? Now I'm imagining a Roman mosaic tiled window manager.)
> and xmbind, which is used to configure virtual key bindings for motif.
Since we're not pressed for space here I'll suggest expanding this to
"virtual key/mouse-bindings".
At last one that I'm sure isn't just me: s/motif/Motif/.
> [1] http://packages.qa.debian.org/o/openmotif.html
(So "OpenMotif" is the old non-free version and now it's gone LGPL
it's called plain "Motif"? Okay, confusing.)
> Source: motif
> Section: devel
(Wait, why is the source package's Section set to something not used
by any of the binary packages?)
[...]
> Package: libmotif4
[...]
> Description: Motif - shared libraries
> This package includes all files you need to run Motif
> applications which are linked against Motif, which
> are the shared libraries for the most part.
This is a clumsy effort to explain stuff that's mostly implicit in the
Debian packaging dependency system. Just say:
Description: Motif - shared libraries
Motif is the industry standard GUI component toolkit for *NIX.
.
This package contains the shared libraries and associated files.
And so on cut'n'pastily:
> Package: libmotif4-dbg
[...]
> Description: Motif - shared libraries debugging symbols
English doesn't normally pluralise the nouns in a stack like that.
Come to that, synopses don't usually take the time to explain that the
debugging symbols are for the shared libraries. Just say:
Description: Motif - debugging symbols
> This package includes all files you need to run Motif
> applications which are linked against Motif, which
> are the shared libraries for the most part.
No it doesn't. Or at least, not the normal ones.
> .
> This package contains the debugging symbols.
Turn the first paragraph into our boilerplate and it's done.
> Package: libmotif-dev
[...]
> Description: Motif - development files
> Everything you need to build Motif applications with
> Motif. This includes header files, static libraries,
> the manual pages for the Motif API and uil (user interface
> language compiler)
This has a bit more content to it, but the sentence-fragment about
building Motif apps with Motif has got to go! Oh, and it's not true
that this package provides all of build-essential. How about:
Description: Motif - development files
Motif is the industry standard GUI component toolkit for *NIX.
.
This package provides everything needed for developing Motif
applications, including header files, static libraries, the API
manual pages, and uil, the user interface language compiler.
--
JBR with qualifications in linguistics, experience as a Debian
sysadmin, and probably no clue about this particular package
--- control 2013-01-19 13:17:20.940208527 +0000
+++ control.jbr 2013-01-19 13:51:54.325117308 +0000
@@ -31,9 +31,9 @@
Replaces: libmotif3
Provides: libmotif3
Description: Motif - shared libraries
- This package includes all files you need to run Motif
- applications which are linked against Motif, which
- are the shared libraries for the most part.
+ Motif is the industry standard GUI component toolkit for *NIX.
+ .
+ This package contains the shared libraries and associated files.
Package: libmotif4-dbg
Architecture: any
@@ -41,10 +41,8 @@
Section: debug
Priority: extra
Conflicts: lesstif2-dbg
-Description: Motif - shared libraries debugging symbols
- This package includes all files you need to run Motif
- applications which are linked against Motif, which
- are the shared libraries for the most part.
+Description: Motif - debugging symbols
+ Motif is the industry standard GUI component toolkit for *NIX.
.
This package contains the debugging symbols.
@@ -54,10 +52,11 @@
Depends: libmotif4 (= ${binary:Version}), ${misc:Depends}, ${shlibs:Depends}
Conflicts: lesstif-bin, lesstif-dev, lesstif-doc, lesstif2-dev
Description: Motif - development files
- Everything you need to build Motif applications with
- Motif. This includes header files, static libraries,
- the manual pages for the Motif API and uil (user interface
- language compiler)
+ Motif is the industry standard GUI component toolkit for *NIX.
+ .
+ This package provides everything needed for developing Motif
+ applications, including header files, static libraries, the API
+ manual pages, and uil, the user interface language compiler.
Package: motif-clients
Architecture: any
@@ -65,7 +64,9 @@
Depends: menu, ${misc:Depends}, ${shlibs:Depends}
Pre-Depends: x11-common (>= 1:7.0.0)
Conflicts: lesstif-bin
-Description: Motif window manager and virtual key bindings configure client
- Motif is the industry standard toolkit for *NIX systems. This package
- contains the Motif window manager, which has clear but classical appearance,
- and xmbind, which is used to configure virtual key bindings for motif.
+Description: Motif window manager and setup tool
+ Motif is the industry standard GUI component toolkit for *NIX.
+ .
+ This package contains the Motif window manager, which has a clear but
+ classical appearance, and xmbind, which is used to configure virtual
+ key/mouse-bindings for Motif.
Source: motif
Section: devel
Priority: optional
Build-Depends: byacc,
debhelper (>= 9),
dh-autoreconf,
dh-exec,
flex,
libsm-dev,
libx11-dev,
libxaw7-dev,
libxext-dev,
libxft-dev,
libxmu-dev,
libxt-dev,
xbitmaps
Maintainer: Graham Inggs <graham@nerve.org.za>
Uploaders: Paul Gevers <elbrus@debian.org>
Standards-Version: 3.9.4
Homepage: http://motif.ics.com/
Vcs-Browser: http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/motif.git
Vcs-Git: git://anonscm.debian.org/collab-maint/motif.git
Package: libmotif4
Architecture: any
Section: libs
Multi-Arch: same
Depends: ${misc:Depends}, ${shlibs:Depends}
Pre-Depends: ${misc:Pre-Depends}, x11-common (>= 1:7.0.0)
Conflicts: libmotif3
Replaces: libmotif3
Provides: libmotif3
Description: Motif - shared libraries
Motif is the industry standard GUI component toolkit for *NIX.
.
This package contains the shared libraries and associated files.
Package: libmotif4-dbg
Architecture: any
Depends: libmotif4 (= ${binary:Version}), ${misc:Depends}
Section: debug
Priority: extra
Conflicts: lesstif2-dbg
Description: Motif - debugging symbols
Motif is the industry standard GUI component toolkit for *NIX.
.
This package contains the debugging symbols.
Package: libmotif-dev
Architecture: any
Section: libdevel
Depends: libmotif4 (= ${binary:Version}), ${misc:Depends}, ${shlibs:Depends}
Conflicts: lesstif-bin, lesstif-dev, lesstif-doc, lesstif2-dev
Description: Motif - development files
Motif is the industry standard GUI component toolkit for *NIX.
.
This package provides everything needed for developing Motif
applications, including header files, static libraries, the API
manual pages, and uil, the user interface language compiler.
Package: motif-clients
Architecture: any
Section: x11
Depends: menu, ${misc:Depends}, ${shlibs:Depends}
Pre-Depends: x11-common (>= 1:7.0.0)
Conflicts: lesstif-bin
Description: Motif window manager and setup tool
Motif is the industry standard GUI component toolkit for *NIX.
.
This package contains the Motif window manager, which has a clear but
classical appearance, and xmbind, which is used to configure virtual
key/mouse-bindings for Motif.
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