Bug#457995: new update/revision announcement pages confusing about aptitude/apt
Philippe Cloutier wrote:
> Le December 27, 2007 03:26:11 pm Luk Claes, vous avez écrit :
>> Philippe Cloutier wrote:
>>> Le December 27, 2007 03:12:22 pm Jose Luis Rivas Contreras, vous avez
> écrit :
>>>> Philippe Cloutier wrote:
>>>>> Package: www.debian.org
>>>>> Severity: minor
>>>>>
>>>>> As its predecessor, http://www.us.debian.org/News/2007/20071227
>>>>> contains
>>>>>
>>>>> Upgrading to this revision online is usually done by pointing the
>>>>> aptitude (or apt) package tool (see the sources.list(5) manual page) to
>>>>> one of Debian's many FTP or HTTP mirrors.
>>>>>
>>>>> This can confuse readers about what apt and aptitude are, suggesting
>>>>> that one can use one or the other. This should probably read "by
>>>>> pointing the Advanced Packaging Tool (APT) (see the sources.list(5)
>>>>> manual page) to [...]".
>>>> You can use one or the other, depending on which one you prefer to use.
>>> Actually, you have to use APT, since aptitude uses APT. The problem is
>>> precisely that the announcement suggests that aptitude does not use APT,
>>> which is already a common misconception.
>> No, aptitude uses libapt... For an enduser he can choose whatever
>> package manager to use, though we recommend aptitude (or apt).
> I guess I have not been clear enough about the problem.
> The announcement says this:
> "You can use A or B."
> B being a library used by A, users have to use B anyway, the only choice is to
> use A or not. Actually, the choice is which APT front-end to use.
>
> It could also be changed to "pointing your favorite package manager (such as
> aptitude and Synaptic) to [...]" though in reality, you're pointing APT to a
> source, and you're only pointing your package manager to a source indirectly.
>
> The current sentence is a bit like saying that you can use Debian or Linux to
> replace Windows.
No, it's not, apt is a package manager, it's libapt that is a library.
Sorry, but you're wrong.
Cheers
Luk
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