> But I don't see the need to *package* large ascii files. What would be
I do see one value, as evidenced by the doc-rfc package: "apt-get update" means I don't have to keep track of it, I *always* have the latest version close at hand. In otherwords, the packaging is an encoding of some human effort. Extending this to the etheme example - having a meta-packaging tool which encodes the "human" knowledge of the difference between an upstream package and an ideal debian package [in the best case, like with CPAN, this is merely the *difference* between their ideal and ours] is potentially better than just having someone pump out packages themselves - you still get the tracking and upgrading, but you also get extension into "proper handling of correct but unknown" instances of the meta-package...
