On Thursday 22 October 2009 22:37:54 Manoj Srivastava wrote: > On Thu, Oct 22 2009, Raphael Geissert wrote: > > Manoj Srivastava wrote: > >> I also think that style issues should not be a part of even > >> Pedantic checks. If a package is using a different, and arguably > >> better style, then lintian should keep its nose out. > > > > If there's a better style I guess nobody would object to consider > > recommend it or > > You are not getting it. Better is subjective. That's not always true. Better can be subjective, but it can also be objective. If a style scores better on all the metrics we care about that another style, it is objectively better. If a style has advantages over another, but the other does not have an advantage over the first, the first style is objectively better. > You can have a > dozen "better" styles, all contradictory. Are you planning on having > checks that can never all be met simultaneously? That is what you get > when you go for subjectively "better" styles. We shouldn't warn on subjectively better style, but be should warn on objectively poor style. > Here is an excerpt from aptitude (lines edited to remove size > and version info for email): > --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8--- > i kernel-package A utility for building Linux kernel related Debian > packages. i module-assistant tool to make module package creation easier > --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8--- > > Frankly, I like the > Package-Name: A short sentence with a period. > way better. The front ends have never started to display the short > descriptions as though they were noun phrases Neither of those are a sentence. The first lacks a verb (or verb phrase). The second also lacks a period and capital letter, but that actually makes it *easier* to use in an actual sentence, since it doesn't have to be modified to be used as a noun phrase. The first is clearly grammatically incorrect -- it can't be used unchanged in any grammatically correct structure. The second is not a sentence, but it is grammatically correct as it can be used unchanged in a grammatically correct structure. (In addition, it stands on its own as a noun phrase.) -- Boyd Stephen Smith Jr. ,= ,-_-. =. bss@iguanasuicide.net ((_/)o o(\_)) ICQ: 514984 YM/AIM: DaTwinkDaddy `-'(. .)`-' http://iguanasuicide.net/ \_/
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