Bug#974909: explicitly differentiate between files and fileds in Check:

["Chris Lamb" <lamby@debian.org>]

Felix Lechner wrote:

> I sympathize with your desire for clarity and have put a lot of time
> toward that goal. In the case of the watch file, I know what you mean
> but I do not arrive at the same conclusion.
>
> Perhaps you can agree that clarity is improved when different things
> have different names. (My favorite example for that is driving in
> Atlanta, where a significant number of streets are named Peachtree.)
> In Lintian, we try to reserve the term"version" for package versions.
> They are probably the single most confusing, most controversial and
> least thought-out area in Debian. Part of it is, of course, that
> upstreams are free to choose whichever system or format they like.
>
> As a mental exercise, you can try to sort version numbers (for the
> same package). We attempt to do that, however poorly, on lintian.d.o.
> I do not see an advantage to mixing the concept of standard compliance
> anywhere, such as for watch files, with package versions. As a mental
> bridge, which I need sometimes as well, I find it helpful to think of
> Debian's very own Standards-Version in d/control.

Given that Lintian led Pirate to a wider misunderstanding of what
"Check: foo" actually means, I am not sure a discussion on the
details, history and broader philosophy of foo itself will be of
great help.


Regards,

--
      ,''`.
     : :'  :     Chris Lamb
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