Bug#617625: apt-get man page should not recommend dselect

[Sam Hartman <hartmans@debian.org>]

Package: apt
Version: 0.8.8
Severity: normal


Hi.
The apt-get man page points out that users should use a frontend and lists several, starting with dselect.
A friend was asking me to help clean up the mess that resulted because he followed that recommendation.
It's way to easy to convince dselect to do damage to a system and leave it in an inconsistent state.
Dselect is also a horrible introduction to Debian.

My preference is that dselect disappear from the archive and thus the apt-get man page.
Realistically I'd be happy if we stopped recommending it, either by removing it entirely or explicitly mentioning that it is crufty.

Thanks for your consideration,

--Sam



-- Package-specific info:

-- /etc/apt/preferences --

package: *
pin: release a=unstable
pin-priority: 101

package: *
pin: release a=testing
pin-priority: 500


-- (/etc/apt/sources.list present, but not submitted) --


-- System Information:
Debian Release: squeeze/sid
  APT prefers oldstable
  APT policy: (500, 'oldstable'), (500, 'testing'), (101, 'unstable'), (1, 'experimental')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.32-5-amd64 (SMP w/2 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=C, LC_CTYPE=C (charmap=ANSI_X3.4-1968)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash

Versions of packages apt depends on:
ii  debian-archive-keyring  2010.08.28       GnuPG archive keys of the Debian a
ii  gnupg                   1.4.10-4         GNU privacy guard - a free PGP rep
ii  libc6                   2.11.2-7         Embedded GNU C Library: Shared lib
ii  libgcc1                 1:4.5.1-10       GCC support library
ii  libstdc++6              4.4.5-8          The GNU Standard C++ Library v3
ii  zlib1g                  1:1.2.3.4.dfsg-3 compression library - runtime

apt recommends no packages.

Versions of packages apt suggests:
pn  apt-doc                     <none>       (no description available)
ii  aptitude                    0.6.3-3.2    terminal-based package manager (te
ii  bzip2                       1.0.5-6      high-quality block-sorting file co
ii  dpkg-dev                    1.15.8.5     Debian package development tools
ii  lzma                        4.43-14      Compression method of 7z format in
ii  python-apt                  0.7.100      Python interface to libapt-pkg
ii  synaptic                    0.70~pre1+b1 Graphical package manager

-- no debconf information