According to Marius Vollmer <marius.vollmer at nokia.com>:
> "ext Steve Greenland" <steveg at moregruel.net> writes:
>
> > According to Marius Vollmer <marius.vollmer at nokia.com>:
> >> How important is it to fix this? I'm working on the assumption that
> >> you would only activate "Show all packages" in an emergency, but would
> >> usually leave it off (precisely because it decreases the useability so
> >> much).
> >
> > The problem is that while in theory, I could just display all the
> > packages in a particular cagetory, or even only the "users/*"
> > categories, in practice the category stuff is so screwed up that the
> > only way to find anything is browsing the "all" lists.
>
> Browsing the "All" category and the "Show all packages" settings are
> two different things. (I am not sure whether you are aware of that.)
I was, but I set "Show all packages" a while ago, and had forgotten the
distinction.
I just disabled "show all packages", and browsed "all", and yes, it's
much faster. But I'm a little baffled -- it still shows (some) lib*
packages, which I would consider the first thing to filter out, since
they'll be installed by dependencies, and there is little reason (for a
non-developer, at least) to installa particular library.
> > Then it shows examples like:
> >
> > # user/accessories Accessories
> > # user/communication Communication
> >
> > So, what goes in the control file? "user/accessories" or
> > "user/Accessories" or "user/accessories Accessories"? Two of the three
> > violate the previous definition, and the examples don't even follow the
> > form.
>
> You misunderstood. The list is not a list of examples, it is a list
> of predefined categories that you should use whenever possible. The
> predefined categories are also localized.
Ah, I see your point. But the the predefined categories are still in
conflict with the instructions, which say the sub-category should be
capitalized. Thus, "user/Accessories", not "user/accessories".
I understand that this may be an implicit exception for the pre-defined
categories that are localized. But it is obviously confusing for the new
reader; here are (some of) the categories currently listed on my N800
(this is with "Show all packages" re-enabled, but even with it disabled,
I get all of these without the "maemo" or "user" prefix, and many more):
maemo/Applications
maemo/libs
maemo/Utilities
user/accessories
user/Applications
user/cli
user/Commandline
user/communications
user/connectivity
user/Daemon
user/Daemons
user/devel
user/extras
user/games
user/graphics
user/instantmessaging
user/library
user/libs
user/Locales
user/mics
user/multimedia
user/office
user/other
user/programming
user/Protocols
user/religion
user/sound
user/themes
user/tools
user/utils
user/Web
user/web
Many (most?) of these are also duplicated without the "user" prefix;
quite a few obviously come from the straight port of Debian package
categories.
> Yes, but the Application Manager is not the one enforcing policy. If
> it encounters a non-policy-conforming package, it will still show and
> install it if possible.
Oh, absolutely, and that's why I earlier wrote about it not being your
fault.
But part of the problem is the lack of the *limited* list of sections.
You could do worse than to document the complete list of Debian
sections, and say "pick one of these, don't make up new ones". (I don't
mean "you" in particular, Marius, but whatever group is writing these
docs, and enforced (encouraged?) by whoever is maintaining the extras
repo.
Regards,
Steve
--
Steve Greenland
The irony is that Bill Gates claims to be making a stable operating
system and Linus Torvalds claims to be trying to take over the
world. -- seen on the net
