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Though it makes sense to be able to specify a prefered document format in the |
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USE variables, a blanket 'docs' variable doesn't make a lot of sense to me -- |
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at least not in the case of most of the documents I'm thinking of. |
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|
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Going back to my previous example, it makes sense that Python documents be |
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separate from the the Python interpreter. Why? Because everyone needs the |
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interpreter (to run Portage), but only developers are going to use the |
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tutorials and references. |
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|
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On the other hand, just because I want the docs for Python, it doesn't mean |
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that I also want the docs for Ruby, or the Linux HOWTO docs. Using a USE var |
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would mean that I had to set it depending on what package I was installing. |
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|
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To me, it makes sense to come up with a convention for splitting documents |
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from applications, and making the docs easy to find. |
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|
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Matt |
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|
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On Tuesday 08 January 2002 07:33 pm, you wrote: |
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> On Tue, 2002-01-08 at 19:09, Aron Griffis wrote: |
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> > tvon@×××××.org wrote: [Tue Jan 08 2002, 06:41:58PM EST] |
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> > |
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> > > Speaking of which (which being docs for packages), is there any |
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> > > validity to having a USE for 'docs' which determines weather or not |
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> > > varios package docs are built along with the package they go with? |
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> > |
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> > This sounds like a really good idea to me. |
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> |
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> Hi! |
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> |
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> I have been thinking about this also. My thoughts. |
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> |
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> Possible USE variables: dochtml, docpdf, docinfo |
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> Most Gnu packages have all the documetation in the package tarball and |
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> allow you to build to a variety of formats. I personally prefer html |
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> for reading locally in a browser. Other people may want info for in |
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> console and emacs and others pdf for printing. Building pdf |
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> documentation from source would require a PAPER environmental variable |
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> to set the users preference, i.e. letter, A4, etc. Most (but not all) |
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> Linux Documentation Project stuff is available in sgml so it can be |
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> built to preference also. I have played around with this for some gnu |
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> packages and python. (Unfortunately, I have never been able to build |
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> the python documentation from the source tarball) |
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> |
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> Advantages: |
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> |
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> 1. fewer megabytes downloaded (especially nice for those on dial-up) |
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> 2. fewer megabytes archived on ibiblio |
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> 3. fewer doc ebuilds required in app-doc |
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> 4. user flexibility |
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> |
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> Disadvantages: |
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> |
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> 1. added size and complication of ebuilds. |
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> 2. not all packages include extensive documentation (manuals, tutorials, |
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> etc) in the source tarball or if they do, include prebuilt html and/or |
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> pdf but not necessarily both. How to handle case where docpdf is set, |
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> but only html is available. |
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> 3. program may build ok, but buggy documentation build could cause the |
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> merge to fail. |
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> |
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> tod |
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> |
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> |
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> |
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> |
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> _______________________________________________ |
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> gentoo-dev mailing list |
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> gentoo-dev@g.o |
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> http://lists.gentoo.org/mailman/listinfo/gentoo-dev |
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