On Tue, Oct 07, 2008 at 12:46:24PM +0100, Steve Long wrote:
> Robert Buchholz wrote:
> 
> > On Sunday 05 October 2008, Thilo Bangert wrote:
> >> Ciaran McCreesh <ciaran.mccreesh@...> said:
> >> > On Sun, 5 Oct 2008 03:44:20 -0700
> >> >
> >> > "Robin H. Johnson" <robbat2@g.o> wrote:
> >> > > Either we need special cases to declare that it no longer has a
> >> > > homepage, or we need to allow the empty HOMEPAGE.
> >> >
> >> > HOMEPAGE="( )"
> >>
> >> HOMEPAGE="http://this-package-has-no-homepage.gentoo.org/"
> > 
> > Why not use our package site for this, i.e.
> > HOMEPAGE="http://packages.gentoo.org/package/${CAT}/${PN}"
> > 
> > i.e. for this particular use case,
> > http://packages.gentoo.org/package/app-mobilephone/smssend
> > 
> > The site contains a link to ChangeLog, description, current version,
> > forums and bugs. I would suggest it is the most usable homepage a user
> > can expect if no other exists.
> > 
> ++ This makes the most sense; it's simple and it enables users to interact
> with the appropriate channels to get support, or file bugs and patches.
> 
> If a notice is needed, the website can be amended to state explicitly that
> upstream is dead (if the homepage points to self.)

Use a constant of some sort rather then having the ebuild hardcode the 
fallback- this shifts the fallback upto the PM (code rather then data 
it operates on) allowing far more flexibility.

An example for why this is a better approach would be if I get really 
really bored some afternoon (or exceedingly drunk) and try to match 
the package back to a freshmeat url when the homepage is 
unknown/unset; using a constant, I can focus on that fun task.  
If the fallback url is hardcoded into the ebuild (data), I wind 
up having to know of the url scheme for packages.gentoo.org (both 
past and present) to be able to detect if the homagepage is 
'unset'; it's both buggy and a pita to try that route.

Use a constant of some sort please, it's way saner from a data format 
standpoint.

And no, using a packages.gentoo.org is not constant since the url 
namespace can potentially change someday, let alone the idiocy of 
having to regex it just to discern 'unset' ;)

~brian