[Date Prev][Date Next] [Thread Prev][Thread Next] [Date Index] [Thread Index]

RE: Priorities



> From: Joey Hess [mailto:joeyh@debian.org]
> 
> Anthony Towns wrote:
<snip>
> > The *task* is really "usable 2d windowing environment for accessing
> > programs", it's not kde, or gnome, or xlib, or motif. Is it really
> > sensible to have the choice between the various windowing toolkits
> > made here?  Would it be better/possible to have a task-desktop that
> > included both gnome and kde, and the best apps from both, 
> and just let
> > the user use them?  Obviously the packager would have to 
> make a choice
> > amongst xdm, gdm and kdm, but that doesn't seem 
> unreasonably difficult.
> 
> Yes, probably. Remember, task packages arn't about choice, or rather
> they are about us making choices so a new user doesn't have to bother.
> 


If task packages can provide choice, why not let them?  The
task-gnome-desktop
(or something like that) package was helpful to me when I wanted to install
gnome, since it's made up of half-a-dozen packages.  A task lets me just
trust
the developer, and assume that I'll get all of the neccessary packages to do
the job.  If it was task-desktop, with all of the desktops and
windowmanagers in
it, it would be bloated to the point of being unusable.

<snip>
> >     gnome-games
> > 	- i just want to play games, i don't care what toolkit they use

But you don't want to have a task which requires you to install both KDE and
GNOME,
just to play some games.  A task that had all games in it would do it.

<snip>
> >     python-web
> > 	- a general "i want to work on interactive web sites" 
> task would make
> > 	  sense to me (one that included, presumably, a free 
> java, and zope,
> > 	  and tomcat, and tools to do cgi in perl and python 
> and whatever else)
> > 	  but just for pythn? "apt-get install zope" if that's 
> what you want.

Looking at task-python-web's packages, apt-get install zope wouldn't
get you everything you'd want for python web development.

> 
> I think I agree with all of these. We should file bugs to get them
> removed.
> 

What's the purpose of removing them?  They can't take up very many HW
resources,
and presumably whoever's created them has done so for a purpose.  If the
point
is to avoid confusing newcomers, why not just rename the "deviant" packages
to
some other name (e.g., "group-python-web", instead of "task-python-web")?

Dave
(p.s., I'm not subscribed to debian-policy, so please CC: me if you
respond).



Reply to: