Re: ideas underlying policy
Hi,
>>"Jim" == Jim <jim@laney.edu> writes:
>> Why should this be distinct from filing the bug report against
>> policy?
Jim> Because it doesn't necessarily follow that if a package has a
Jim> conflict with policy then policy is flawed.
Really? Why not? I think it should be decreed that packages
follow a standard, unless following the standard breaks the package,
and in that case, the standard is broken since it violates teh axiom
that Debian does not distribute broken packages.
What makes you make that statement?
Jim> A conflict can exist without anything being wrong with policy,
Examples, and justification, rather than a bald statement,
please. If there may be a conflict with a standard, without the
application or the standard being incorrect, then the whole standards
process is flawed.
I think we do need a standard for producing debian packages
that can interact and co-operate with each other; and the sheer
number of packages militates against forging all possible agreements
between all interacting pairs of package; it is far better that all
packages follow a standard, and all packages can depend on packages
in the distribution following the same standard. Complex co-operative
interaction is well nigh impossible otherwise.
Jim> and policy can be flawed without any package having conflict with
Jim> policy.
True.
Jim> Basically, there exist more possibilities than you were
Jim> originally aware of, but some thought and jotting down all
Jim> possible permutations will quickly reveal the possibilities that
Jim> do exist.
Examples.
All possible permutations maynot exist in reality. This is not
a puerile exercise in basic logic; this is a standards drafting body;
and basic logic that has no basis in reality has little place here.
Jim> A glance at a basic symbolic logic text may be of help:
Jim> the fact this note expresses is not the result of any debian law,
Jim> nor can it be denied thereby; it is simply a matter of basic
Jim> logic.
I shall refrain from comments about ivory towers and reality
and pragmatism here.
manoj
--
"It's not just a computer -- it's your ass." Cal Keegan
Manoj Srivastava <srivasta@acm.org> <http://www.datasync.com/%7Esrivasta/>
Key C7261095 fingerprint = CB D9 F4 12 68 07 E4 05 CC 2D 27 12 1D F5 E8 6E
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