Re: Selecting packages from thousands
>>>>> "Ian" == Ian Jackson <ian@davenant.greenend.org.uk> writes:
Ian> The next question to ask ourselves is: who decides on these
Ian> categories and who decides on which packages are in them ?
Ian> Clearly the categories need to be decided on centrally, so
Ian> their descriptions can be specified centrally.
Agreed. However I suggest that the "description files" be an
option. Because people"s taste vary, one description files cannot be
optimal for evrybody.
Ian> I think that if we have a stronger Priority mechanism, which
Ian> distinguishes Optional packages that most people will want from
Ian> those which most people should probably ignore, we can just
Ian> allow package maintainers to decide which categorie(s) their
Ian> package fits into.
Ian> Then the categories are like keywords. So we end up with:
Ian> * A file in the distribution alongside the Packages file. We
Ian> could call it Categories. It contains a list of the
Ian> categories. Each category would have one or more levels of
Ian> support; for each level of support it lists the
Ian> keyword/priority combinations that should be included.
Ian> * Package installation tools should by default select packages
Ian> according to whether they match the selected level of any
Ian> category. But, the user can go in at a more detailed level and
Ian> (de)select individual packages.
The case where a package belong to several categories is somewhat
tricky, because you select a category, unselect a package of it, and
then select another category of that package.
Anyway, I really think that a package's description should not be kept
into the package itself. Because they are independent. One should be
able to change the description without rebuilding the package. Think
about i18n.
--
Laurent Martelli
martelli@iie.cnam.fr
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