Bug#190753: About dropping the ‘should’ recommendation to rename binary programs using a suffix to indicate their programming language.
found 190753 3.8.3.0
user debian-policy@packages.debian.org
usertags issue
thanks
Dear all,
After a discussion on debian-devel@lists.debian.org, that I have summarised in
‘http://lists.debian.org/msgid-search/20091001012838.GA30270@kunpuu.plessy.org’;,
I am proposing to drop or relax the requirement from the Policy section 10.4,
that programs have to be renamed to remove the suffix of their name when it
relates to the language used to write them.
My main argument is that it makes Debian installations incompatible with
installations on other operating systems as well with on-line documentation.
The modification of the Policy could be done in multiple ways:
- Simply revert the changes introduced in version 3.7.0.
- Relax the changes in order to let the choice to the package maintainer.
- Keep a strong requirement for the programs written by Debian for Debian,
but drop the requirement for other programs.
My preference would go for the last item, but that would probably need to
clarify what is a program made by Debian for Debian. Recent discussions on
native Debian packages show that the use of the native package format is not a
good predictor for this. My second choice would be to simply revert the changes
introduced in 3.7.0, because it would make the Policy unncessarly complicated
if it would discus cases where there is no norm.
Have a nice day,
--
Charles Plessy
Tsurumi, Kanagawa, Japan
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