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Re: Release notes



Daniel Hartwig wrote:
>>> I'm standardising on "full-console mode", given that nobody has
>>> suggested anything better.
>>
>> The reason no one has suggested anything better is that 'visual mode' is the
>> *canonical name* for running aptitude in this mode.  Please don't have a
>> proxy battle with the aptitude maintainer via the release notes - if you
>> disagree with the name "visual mode", please get the aptitude documentation
>> fixed *first*, rather than inventing inconsistent language that will be used
>> only in the release notes.
> 
> Right, and I do not see how ‘visual mode’ is misleading?

I've explained it already, but the reason it's not obvious to you is
that you're not some slow-witted, ignorant newbie, and therefore don't
have much practice looking at documentation from the appropriate
angle.  You're using the term "visual mode" to distinguish that UI
from another one, which is therefore... what, "olfactory mode"?  Are
users not expected to read "Accept this solution? [Y/n/q/?]" using
their eyes?

The term "visual mode" is a fossil from the days when vi was an
innovatively friendly piece of interface design.

> By the way,
> current aptitude manual prefers the term ‘visual interface’, ‘mode’ is
> used only once and I have just changed that.

So even if our policy is "stick to the canonical label", we ought to
change it.  Alternatively, if you still think "visual" is a valid
description as well as just an arbitrary label, why shouldn't we use
other valid descriptions as well?

>>> If you were about to object that the name isn't appropriate when you're in
>>> an X session, bear in mind that we've already advised people not to run a
>>> dist-upgrade that way.
> 
> So? X is not the only means of display visual user interfaces.

Sorry, no, you misunderstand.  By "the name" here I mean "full-console
mode"; I was saying that "full-console" might make people think it's
full-screen in the media-player sense.

But I notice dselect calls its equivalent mode "full-screen".

Or of course there's "full-terminal mode".
-- 
JBR	with qualifications in linguistics, experience as a Debian
	sysadmin, and probably no clue about this particular package


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