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"Hemmann, Volker Armin" <volker.armin.hemmann@××××××××××××.de> posted |
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200608131856.11003.volker.armin.hemmann@××××××××××××.de, excerpted below, |
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on Sun, 13 Aug 2006 18:56:10 +0200: |
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|
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>> For a quick idea of what the USE flag does in general, then, if it's a |
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>> global USE flag, one would check the entry in use.desc which would be |
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>> much as it is now. For a better idea of what it does in a particular |
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>> package, check the corresponding entry in use.local.desc, which would |
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>> describe the effects of the flag on that particular package. That's what |
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>> I'm proposing. Users could just check the general description if that's |
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>> all they wanted/needed, and have exactly the same level of info they |
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>> have now, with a possible tweak to a description here or there. If they |
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>> wanted to know for example what the gnome flag did in the pan package, |
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>> however, they'd look in use.local.desc and see something to the effect |
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>> of "Builds against libgnome to let pan use the configured gnome |
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>> browser." |
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> |
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> but we already have that! |
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> |
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> Start ufed. Read some of the flag descriptions. For a lot of them, there |
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> are several ones. |
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> |
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> avahi has since descriptions - for six different packages, or atm, two |
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> descriptions, audacious, three... for each package a different one. |
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|
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You mean like this? |
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|
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$grep avahi use.local.desc |
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gnome-base/gnome-vfs:avahi - Support for avahi mdns daemon. |
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media-sound/mt-daapd:avahi - Use avahi instead of howl as mdns daemon |
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media-sound/pulseaudio:avahi - Use avahi instead of howl as mdns daemon |
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media-sound/rhythmbox:avahi - support for avahi mdns daemon |
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media-video/vlc:avahi - Support for avahi mdns daemon. |
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net-dns/avahi:bookmarks - Install the avahi-bookmarks application (requires dev-python/twisted) |
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net-dns/avahi:howl-compat - Enable compat libraries for howl |
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net-dns/avahi:mdnsresponder-compat - Enable compat libraries for mDNSResponder |
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net-im/ekiga:avahi - Support for the avahi mdns daemon |
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net-im/gaim:avahi - Enable using avahi howl libraries. |
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net-misc/vino:avahi - Build with avahi support |
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sys-auth/nss-mdns:avahi - enable support for Avahi |
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$grep audacious use.local.desc |
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app-admin/conky:audacious - enable monitoring of audio tracks that are playing (media-sound/audacious) |
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app-emulation/uade:audacious - Enables support for media-sound/audacious |
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media-sound/audacious:chardet - Character set detection support for non-compliant ID3 tags |
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media-sound/audacious:modplug - Build with modplug support |
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media-sound/audacious:musepack - Build with musepack support |
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media-sound/audacious:sid - Build with SID (Commodore 64 Audio) support |
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media-sound/audacious:timidity - Build with Timidity++ (MIDI sequencer) support |
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media-sound/audacious:wma - Build with WMA (Windows Media Audio) support |
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net-irc/xchat-xsys:audacious - Enables Audacious (media player) integration |
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|
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Those are local USE flags, not global. What I'm proposing is similar |
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per-package detail for global USE flags as well. |
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|
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> for local flags it is already done - and global flags... is such an |
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> amount of information really needed? |
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|
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Arguably, yes. If I know what the USE flag enables, both in terms of |
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dependencies and in terms of per-package functionality (not always the |
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same thing, see below), I can make a better per-package choice as to |
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whether I want the flag enabled for that package or not. |
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|
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> If I have perl installed, why should I not want perl bindings, perl |
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> documentation and perl support in a package? |
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|
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Because they are three different things. If you don't know perl yourself, |
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you have no use for where the flag enables perl documentation and |
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examples, but could very well have a use for the documentation built using |
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perl for an otherwise non-perl related package. The flip could also be |
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the case -- you want the perl docs, but have no interest in the extra docs |
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for some package you aren't actually developing with, just using, anyway. |
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Both of those are totally separate from perl bindings, which again, might |
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be needed for something totally unrelated to you actually knowing how to |
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program perl, or wanting the docs built using perl for some other package |
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you just use in a pre-built script. |
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|
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|
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> Or pan - if I have gnome installed, why should I deactivate gnome support? 'It has gnome support, |
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> fine' why should I need more information? And if I really need to know, |
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> what gnome support means, I can always look into the ebuild. |
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|
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No, you /can't/ just look in the ebuild, because as I already said, the |
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ebuild simply says it uses libgnome, not /why/ it uses libgnome. Perhaps |
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you want to be able to configure what browser it uses separately from the |
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browser you configure for the rest of gnome. Knowing that's the /only/ |
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thing the gnome support does, you might not want to build it in, |
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particularly when doing so means if your libgnome ever goes haywire, so |
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does pan. If the added functionality is so minor, and you've had issues |
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with gnome before, there's a case to be made for not wanting to take that |
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risk. However, you gotta /know/ that's all it does, before you can make |
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that informed choice. |
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|
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> Lots of information is a nice thing, but too much of it is not good |
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> either. Struck dead by the amount of information... (Er wurde von der |
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> Last des Wissens erschlagen.) it can happen, and it does happen. ufeds |
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> informations are already on the verge of getting to much - removing some |
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> here and there would be helpfull (like three of the 6 avahi comments), |
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> because you won't get to the end, if you have to read all of it. |
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|
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See, that's why I suggested keeping use.desc essentially as it is. |
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Newbies and those who don't want the extra information then don't have to |
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deal with it. When someone like me comes along that wants to know exactly |
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what a particular flag does in a package, the (separate) per-package |
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description file would be there to be used. |
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|
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The idea is that people that want the brief description use one file, |
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those that want the details use the other, so everybody gets what they |
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want/need. |
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|
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(As for the "insane" thing, I /did/ catch your meaning and didn't take |
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offense, so no problem here. However, I know from experience how hard it |
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can be to apologize, as it's something I've had to work on, so thanks for |
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catching the potential before it even had a chance to blow up worse. Too |
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bad not everybody is as willing or quick with misunderstandings. Too many |
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time's I've seen good people driven away, because both sides refused to |
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back down over something pretty petty, all in all.) |
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|
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-- |
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Duncan - List replies preferred. No HTML msgs. |
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"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master -- |
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and if you use the program, he is your master." Richard Stallman |
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|
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-- |
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