From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org ([208.92.234.80] helo=lists.gentoo.org) by finch.gentoo.org with esmtp (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1Q5Bwa-0002pq-KN for garchives@archives.gentoo.org; Thu, 31 Mar 2011 07:05:24 +0000 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 8E08F1C090; Thu, 31 Mar 2011 07:05:11 +0000 (UTC) Received: from mail-vx0-f181.google.com (mail-vx0-f181.google.com [209.85.220.181]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 86B071C07B for ; Thu, 31 Mar 2011 07:04:15 +0000 (UTC) Received: by vxb39 with SMTP id 39so1984737vxb.40 for ; Thu, 31 Mar 2011 00:04:15 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=domainkey-signature:mime-version:in-reply-to:references:date :message-id:subject:from:to:content-type:content-transfer-encoding; bh=pqIG2b+PSALd3thaglIhm5p7tiEPXpAgkZlfd7P/bt0=; b=hgBaOmeED1IHTW+3hRyGC2htHT0vkICR4XuzzNjLeXy5Zvp1QJFiCi4WoeWiiVTlTN s+Obmlj5RJFytj2TLIkSpp9qRrqy13t4+XwdKiCzREKLL5HSkC1mNOHYOQsxy8bZlhuI 0hGDGYpCHu1Hlq//JU9dES/HpY1xxpmV992Yk= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=mime-version:in-reply-to:references:date:message-id:subject:from:to :content-type:content-transfer-encoding; b=CVP1ROAAxnpr59Gcvb8/kZoDnr8716QAY1/LWiq4M5HwVJzg3LhqB9Kjx6FZGWPbiH +BgNcbUuCKaM5v/DJMMV0PeiNzf+PJGHef7NPKV4HFAKqZasUTf8mLoLRDKGxiai4O47 n71ckqPFAJR4TXL76hkKgFTB959Btxfw+berQ= Precedence: bulk List-Post: List-Help: List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe: List-Id: Gentoo Linux mail X-BeenThere: gentoo-dev@lists.gentoo.org Reply-to: gentoo-dev@lists.gentoo.org MIME-Version: 1.0 Received: by 10.220.202.74 with SMTP id fd10mr569942vcb.209.1301555054868; Thu, 31 Mar 2011 00:04:14 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.220.177.3 with HTTP; Thu, 31 Mar 2011 00:04:14 -0700 (PDT) In-Reply-To: <20110331054704.GB2763@zptr-nb18> References: <4D91EBB9.1020506@gentoo.org> <1301514568-sup-9005@ittemni> <1301516070.2683.28.camel@TesterTop4> <1301516703-sup-4759@ittemni> <4D93A385.4000105@gmail.com> <20110331054704.GB2763@zptr-nb18> Date: Thu, 31 Mar 2011 09:04:14 +0200 Message-ID: Subject: Re: [gentoo-dev] Please enhance your USE descriptions! From: =?UTF-8?Q?Jes=C3=BAs_J=2E_Guerrero_Botella?= To: gentoo-dev@lists.gentoo.org Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-Archives-Salt: X-Archives-Hash: 527fbfd00fe2c770a84ea8dec9eb4f64 2011/3/31 Eray Aslan : > On Wed, Mar 30, 2011 at 04:41:25PM -0500, Dale wrote: >> +1 =C2=A0Some descriptions may as well not have one at all. =C2=A0May as= well >> Google the flag and the package and see what, if anything, it returns. > > I would say working as intended. =C2=A0If you do not know what a package > does, chances are you don't need to enable it. =C2=A0And if you do want > to tinker, USE flags gives you enough of a hint to start googling. This has nothing to do with what you want to imply here. It's not about the tech skill of the user reading the definition. It's about the definitions being generic and vague enough so they can fit eight thousand packages that doesn't relate in any way, right? To say that the kde use flag gives "support for kde" says next to nothing to me on some packages. When I look into the ebuild and/or into the sources I can see all it does is to copy a .desktop file somewhere, or to enable the kde file dialog, or to create a window deco or a plasma snippet, or a phonon backend, or a color scheme. That's what I wanted to know and there's no way I can know it by looking at the USE description. > Having said that, we should at least have gramatically correct > English in descriptions. =C2=A0One might also lean towards more verbosity > in end-user oriented packages (versus server/backend/toolchain > packages). =C2=A0In any case, 10-15 words should be more than enough to > explain what a USE flag does. Mostly. But try cleaning the ffmpeg/libav-mplayer mess to decide which codec to use and you will find that a clear explanation (so you can decide) can't fit into that space. I don't have a problem reading ebuilds, though having to dive into the sources of a big package is another story, but I can understand users that find this an unpractical "solution". After all, if the USE descriptions doesn't tell a thing we should just remove them because they are taking space in our portage tree to provide zero info. So, "kde" flag purpose is to "enable support for KDE", oh, really?[/sarcasm] --=20 Jes=C3=BAs Guerrero Botella