Package: cdebconf Severity: normal cdebconf currently displays the short description from a template near the top of the dialog box, in a special color. This is unlike debconf, which puts the short description at the bottom of the dialo box, just above the widget that the user can use to answer the question. I think that debconf's behavior is better, because it encurages useful short descriptions that can serve as prompts, and can be read in leu of reading the whole long descrioption, to get the gist of the question if the user is in a hurry.
For example, here is a template from debian-installer: Template: cdrom-checker/start Type: boolean Default: false _Description: CD-ROM integrity check Warning: this check depends on your hardware and may take some time. Are you sure that you want to continue? This short description cannot stand on its own, and in a text-type frontend, the display will probably be something like this: Warning: this check depends on your hardware and may take some time. Are you sure that you want to continue? CD-ROM integrity check _ If cdebconf worked like debconf (or if more people used its text frontend), the natural thing would be to write the same question thus: _Description: Do you want to continue with the integrity check? Warning: this check depends on your hardware and may take some time. Note that currently in debian-installer, there are plenty of templates using the first style, and plenty using the second. But there is still time to fix them all to use a consistent style, and so I hope this change can be made soon, so they get the *right* consistent style. Note also that the exception to this rule is the note (and for cdebconf, error) question types. For these, in debconf, the short description is displayed at the top, same as in cdebconf. -- System Information: Debian Release: testing/unstable Architecture: i386 Kernel: Linux dragon 2.4.22 #1 Sun Oct 12 15:11:10 EDT 2003 i686 Locale: LANG=C, LC_CTYPE=C -- see shy jo
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