[gentoo-user] Re: Problem understanding "eix"

[Dr Rainer Woitok]

Martin,

On Sunday, 2020-05-03 15:55:59 -0000, you wrote:

> ...
> > I STRONGLY beg to disagree!   The "~amd64" notation  is used to ACCEPT a
> > package even though it is  (still) classified as UNSTABLE.
>
> This is package-manager terminology which has much less states since
> a package manager needs no fine distinctions about the reasons of
> accepting or rejecting a package and which of these reasons are caused
> by your local configuration.

No it's USER terminology.  It's what users are confronted with when they
set-up their Portage configuration and when they deal with commands like
"emerge",  "equery", and ilk.   In your mail dating  2020-04-24 17:32:09
-0000 even you said  "Maybe you run an unstable system,  that is ACCEPT_
KEYWORDS='~amd64'?" because you knew  that on an "unstable" system (user
terminology)  property "{isstable}" ("eix" developers' terminology) will
always return True.

But if I learned anything about software development  in my former life,
it's that everything a user or administrator  passes as option or argum-
ent to some command  or inserts into  some configuration file  has to be
described in the manuals using USER terminology.

Brilliant programmers  may write  brilliant software,  but if they write
sloppy documentation or use counterintuitive terminology therein, only a
few stubborn people  will use this software  in a few special cases they
have struggled to understand,  and all the brilliance goes mainly unnot-
iced and is thus  more or less wasted.   No software  can be better than
its documentation!

> ...
> There would be a severe information problem if there were just a
> few such states and the natural term "unstable" with the analogous
> "alienunstable" would have been reserved for a mere negation.

It's not a matter  of the number of states  but a matter of choosing in-
tuitive names for them.   Simply due to  USER EXPECTATION  the term "un-
stable" HAS to be  the opposite of  "isstable"  (and thus is unnecessary
because there is also "!isstable").  And if finer granularity is needed,
more (but carefully chosen) property names  have to be introduced.   But
if every state introduced  isn't clearly  and precisely  defined in some
manual,  it's not too surprising  that only few people manage to use the
software.

Sincerely,
  Rainer