Tilo Schwarz <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > From a techical point of view a package name is a key to identify a > package. This key can be fed to various tools (like dpkg, BTS, > apt-cache, ...) to perform some action.
Don't forget google, mailing list archives, or other search engines. > Now with the package name all the package (meta-) data can be accessed. > A simple "apt-cache show foo" gives me all kinds of information besides > the important Description:-field which is the semantics associated with > the "key" package name. If I search for a package I use something like > "apt-cache search X terminal emulator" and get a nice output with lines > like (besides others) > > aterm - Afterstep XVT - a VT102 emulator for the X window system > lynx - Text-mode WWW Browser > rxvt - VT102 terminal emulator for the X Window System > terminal - Terminal Emulator for GNUstep > wterm - An rxvt based, color xterm replacement > > I don't mind what "key" is used, the one line description sais it all. > So for me as a user the package name doesn't matter, the package > description (and the other meta-data) matters. There's more to a package name than just being a key to tools. It is the name by which one remembers the software, even when he or she doesn't really know it; it is the name one uses when asking a friend (or Dr. Google) about it. > So this nameing discussion is about what package data should be mangled > into the package name, in this case especially what dependency data. You wanted the discussion to be more general - then please acknowledge that it is not only, or even mainly, about dependencies. I have learned that I don't need to activate some GNUstep desktop to use cddb.bundle or terminal.app, so this is no reason to prepend "gnustep-". There are more reasons, among them the wish to have names that can easily be recognized and memorized, and the wish to have a name that, if it isn't unique, at least makes it possible to distinguish the program from others: Not only in a technical sense, but in human language. > To conclude, I'd be still a happy Debian user even if Sarge would be > released with just three letter package names ;-). I would definitely not be happy, and I think that package names do matter. Regards, Frank -- Frank Küster Inst. f. Biochemie der Univ. Zürich Debian Developer
