Donnie Berkholz <dberkholz@g.o> posted
20080513064749.GA25154@..., excerpted below, on 
Mon, 12 May 2008 23:47:49 -0700:

> Would it be possible to add the tree categories as products and the
> packages as components thereof? That would significantly increase the
> odds of correct assignment, because we could save the per-package
> assignees in the database.

++

I've wondered since I first began working with Gentoo why we couldn't 
just do something simple like that.  The way it's setup now has got to be 
the most obtuse, non-intuitive organization for a simple user to try to 
navigate and actually get right, that I've ever seen.

Something simple like cat/pkg would definitely be easier for the newbie 
user than having everything (well, pretty much everything a user's going 
to file bugs on, anyway) under "Gentoo Linux" /except/ a few things like 
portage, and then trying to figure out whether (say) a non-core KDE sound 
app goes in KDE, apps, sound, or ebuilds because it's an ebuild bug, or 
what.

What would it take to make it tri-level?  Then put just two choices at 
the top level, like so:

Level 1: package-tree, all-other
Level 2: 
2-tree: <cat>
2-other: infra, admin, docs, rel-media

Level 3: 
3-<cat>: pkg
3-infra: mirrors, website, bugz, infra-other
3-admin: userrel, devrel, recruitement, admin-other
3-docs: doc-trans, docs-gentoo, docs-not-gentoo
3-rel-media: ...

If we went 4-level we could then add what's currently components under 
some of the top-level stuff.

To me, that'd be about the most logical and intuitive layout possible, 
but it'd take at least three levels to do right.  The two-way tree/non-
tree split at the top, and cat/pkg on the tree side, would /vastly/ 
simplify bug filing for most users.

I know the first few times I filed a Gentoo bug, I was asking myself if 
Gentoo /deliberately/ made it obtuse, because I couldn't figure out how 
it could /possibly/ be that unintuitive by mere accident.  The product as 
a separate page did make things easier, but all one has to do is take a 
look at the notes on the page to see it's still anything but intuitive.

-- 
Duncan - List replies preferred.   No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master."  Richard Stallman

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