Public SourceMage Discussion List

[Duane Malcolm <d.malcolm AT auckland.ac.nz>]

Arjan Bouter wrote:
> On Thu, 24 Feb 2005 09:25:48 +1300
> Duane Malcolm <d.malcolm AT auckland.ac.nz> wrote:
>
>
>
> > A better example is the section "gnome2-apps" store gnome applications 
> > however, the section name doesn't describe what the spell does, gedit is 
> > an editor, gthumb is a image viewer and gnumeric is a great spreadsheet, 
> > however someone new to linux cannot distingush this from the section 
> > name. A category flag will solve this. And the directory structure can 
> > become transparent to the user and becomes a storage method for maintainers.
>
>
> > From what I understand, the gnome spells and libs which form the gnome desktop
> very much depend on each other and have to be updated together for them to 
> keep
> working. Correct me if I'm wrong but I guess splitting them into different
> sections maintained by differrent gurus would complicate matters by having to
> synchronize updates between sections...
> Same would be the case for kde and xfce I guess.
Don't get me wrong, I think the way the gnome apps are stored in the 
right directories. I'm fine with that. The current setup is geared 
towards maintaining spells not searching spells, and this is the way it 
should be. When I want to try out new audio players I do a "gaze what 
`gaze section audio-players`" and read through them. This is far better 
than "gaze search". Try searching for "audio player". However I miss the 
gnome audio players.
> I kind of like the way those sections are now, because one only has to browse
> one section to build those desktops. Instead of hunting the grimoire for apps
> which go with that particular environment.
You too browse the sections to find a spell you like. This is fine when 
you are looking for an audio player for gnome but when you're looking 
for any audio player you have to browse 4-5 sections to get most of them.
> Don't get me wrong, the layout of the grimoires does need some attention :)
> Thanks for taking care of this guys.

You asked what is wrong with putting it in as part of the description in 
the DETAILS file. A CATEGORY will allow clear distinction between a 
general description of the spell and what category or section(s) it 
belongs to.

In summary:
- I think the grimoire sections are for maintaining
- Many use the sections for searching, this fails when a spell belongs 
to multiple sections, therefore you have to search multiple section.
- You can use "gaze search" but there is a lot of noise and false hits.
- One remedy is to include a category flag. This could be based on the 
Sourceforge or Freshmeat "Topic" flags.


Cheers, Duane.