On Sun, Mar 14, 1999 at 10:58:15PM -0800, George Bonser wrote: > The problem is that many of the other packages DO NOT note in the package > descriptions what has changed and the other docs are only available AFTER > you have installed them unless you want to manually take it apart and look > at it before deciding to install it.
Well, it's not the job of one package's description, in almost all cases, to document what has changed in a DIFFERENT package. Also, keep in mind that the package descriptions need to be clear for both upgraders and new users. New Debian users who are starting with 2.1 need neither know nor care about the xbase package, or need to be told that xdm, for instance, used to live in another package. It's completely irrelevant to them. > Many times I see a large package that has been updated and I wonder if > what has changed makes it worthwhile to download the entire package for > some minor change. Has it added some feature I will never use? Has it > fixed or improved something I will use? Hard to say until AFTER I > download it. As a developer, I track the debian-devel-changes mailing list. I freely admit that this is not something we can reasonably expect our users to do. As a user, though, everytime I do an "apt-get upgrade" (or dist-upgrade), I scroll back to the list of packages I have just downloaded, and go read the Debian changelogs in each and every one of them. I am hoping the apt front-ends that are currently in development will be configurable to do this automatically. > I thank you for taking the time to keep your stuff documented and I will > be more careful to read it in the future. Sorry for the rant -- I just don't know what more I can do without being instrusive on experienced users. I have always been the type that hated user interfaces that did stuff like this: Do you really want to quit? "yes" Are you sure? "yes!" I don't think you really mean it. "yes I do!" You can't be serious. I'm not going to let you. "[EMAIL PROTECTED] OFF!" Tools are here to enable us, not hinder us. I feel that part of the Debian philosophy is to never let user friendliness become a user straightjacket. It's not easy to hold the hand of the newbie without cuffing the hands of the wizard. Nevertheless, I try... -- G. Branden Robinson | Somebody once asked me if I thought sex Debian GNU/Linux | was dirty. I said, "It is if you're [EMAIL PROTECTED] | doing it right." cartoon.ecn.purdue.edu/~branden/ | -- Woody Allen
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