On Mon, Apr 22, 2002 at 04:15:45PM +0200, Javier Fernández-Sanguino Pe?a wrote: > > I think it would be better to drop the sections altogether and use a > > keyword-based system someone suggested a few months ago. The advantages > > would be: > > - ultimate fine-grainedness (?) > > - no dillemas about where to put packages which fit in more than > > section (like x11 net-related programs) > > Users need a hierachical layout in order to find software.
Who said that available keywords must be kept in a flat list? :-) You could always group them in sections! I think that a properly designed keyword system can have all the benefits of a section-only system, while being much more flexible at the same time. > Keyword > by themselves are not that much useful since they would be only appropiate > to the language used. What do you mean? > Several disadvantages: > > 1.- more difficult to translate than sections How is "modem" more difficult to translate then "comm"? :-P > 2.- are not organised hierarchicaly (sp?) Like I said, grouping them shouldn't be a problem. Then selecting a group in a hypothetical package browser could mean the same as selecting a "OR" of all the keywords in it. > 3.- difficult to represent graphically in a package-administration gui > (sections are easily represented as trees). Ease of representation doesn't mean ease of use. The problem is with packages which might be in more than one subtree (i.e. section): think of a GNOME IRC client (could be both in x11/gnome or in net/irc in the setup you suggest) or some network-based scientific computation system (both in net and science/math). Since a package may only be in one section, if you dive into wrong subtree, you're moving away from the goal. This is the disadvantage of a tree system. But when using keywords, each keyword you select brings you closer to the goal. You could think of keywords like of a tree system, where each package can be at as many branches as many keywords it has. I hope you know what I mean. > If you want to have a keyword-based system I would suggest you > take a look at dpkg-iasearch (yes, not documented, but it's a proof of > concept) which uses natural language retrieval techniques (TFIDF > vectorisation of documents) to allow for more powerful searchs than > "apt-cache search XXX". I'll have a look at it. But I think that such tools would be most useful if each package would have a "Keywords:" field. > Also take in account that the users will always see a > hierarchicaly (sp?) division of software if using the menu system (in any > window manager) or KDE and GNOME. I guess that's a completly different thing. We're discussing package management now. regards Marcin -- Marcin Owsiany <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://marcin.owsiany.pl/ GnuPG: 1024D/60F41216 FE67 DA2D 0ACA FC5E 3F75 D6F6 3A0D 8AA0 60F4 1216 -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
