Martin Eberhard Schauer wrote: > Dear Multimedia Maintainers, > thank you for maintaining rev-plugins. > > I'm sorry that to me the package description seems problematic. And I'm aware > that it's "just a library" that gets pulled in. The average user should not > need the description to decide whether he needs it …
LADSPA is a sort of "audio development" system, so people who want a reverb function need to be able to find it (or at least pick it out of the "Suggests: ladspa-plugin" alternatives from an audio-editor like audacity). And let's not forget that people who want other things out of Section: sound (such as plugins for CD-ripping or spectrography or VoIP software) need to be able to recognise it as something they can ignore. For context, the package description is currently: # Description: gverb-like ladspa plugin # This reverb is based on gverb by Juhana Sadeharju, # but the code (now C++) is entirely original. # Second input for stereo operation, # and some code to prevent FP denormalisation # was added. This is just a cut-down version of the initial release notes: # This reverb is based on gverb by Juhana Sadeharju, but the code # (now C++) is entirely original. I added a second input for stereo # operation, and some code to prevent FP denormalisation. # This is a preliminary release, and this plugin will probably change # a lot in future versions. > Nevertheless: > - It uses uncommon (FP) and misspelled abbreviations (LADSPA = Linux Audio > Developer's Simple Plugin API). (1) > - There are "plugins" in the package name, but there is just one plugin > inside. > But that seems to originate from upstream. (2) (linuxaudio.org is dead and gone) > - For people who don't know gverb the comparison is quite useless. On the other hand gverb is available in Debian, hidden away in swh-plugins. The docs for that say it's "a mono in, stereo out reverb implementation by Juhana Sadeharju". > I would be more comfortable with something like: > > Description: reverb LADSPA plugin > This reverb features two inputs for stereo operation, > and some code to prevent floating point denormalisation. Here come my nitpicks. 1) The two inputs aren't so much a "feature" as a widening of what it supports relative to gverb - apparently it can do not only "mono in, stereo out" but also "stereo in, stereo out". 2) Just as users don't need to know that it's in C++, it seems inappropriate to focus on the fact that the developer had trouble with some particular esoteric number-crunching error in the code. Or is FP denormalisation really something that audio buffs are expected to know and care about? 3) This package may be a bad place to start, but wouldn't it be nice if LADSPA plugins all had a few lines of boilerplate to indicate what a LADSPA plugin is and why I might want one? Luckily ladspa.org offers a perfectly adequate intro. So how about: Description: reverb LADSPA plugin This plugin provides a reverberation effect based on gverb but supporting stereo-to-stereo as well as mono-to-stereo operation. . The Linux Audio Developer's Simple Plugin API is a standard that allows software audio processors and effects to be plugged into a wide range of audio synthesis and recording packages. (If we still had an "isation" I would suggest standardization, but it's already gone.) -- JBR with qualifications in linguistics, experience as a Debian sysadmin, and probably no clue about this particular package
diff -ru rev-plugins-0.3.1.pristine/debian/control rev-plugins-0.3.1/debian/control --- rev-plugins-0.3.1.pristine/debian/control 2012-04-23 10:25:41.000000000 +0100 +++ rev-plugins-0.3.1/debian/control 2013-01-18 10:12:13.951367623 +0000 @@ -21,9 +21,10 @@ ${shlibs:Depends} Provides: ladspa-plugin -Description: gverb-like ladspa plugin - This reverb is based on gverb by Juhana Sadeharju, - but the code (now C++) is entirely original. - Second input for stereo operation, - and some code to prevent FP denormalisation - was added. +Description: reverb LADSPA plugin + This plugin provides a reverberation effect based on gverb but + supporting stereo-to-stereo as well as mono-to-stereo operation. + . + The Linux Audio Developer's Simple Plugin API is a standard that + allows software audio processors and effects to be plugged into a + wide range of audio synthesis and recording packages.
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