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Re: devel/git and devel/git-base are confusing



    Date:        Mon, 15 Jul 2019 08:04:57 -0400
    From:        Greg Troxel <gdt%lexort.com@localhost>
    Message-ID:  <rmizhlfec5y.fsf%s1.lexort.com@localhost>

First, I simply cannot imagine anyone installing a package without
having any idea what it does, and that's what the DESCR is for (guessing
at what a package is based solely on its name is foolish in the extreme).

The one exception is packages installed as dependencies - and then if
you're getting the wrong thing, the issue is with the package that
requested it, not with the name of the package itself.

If you don't read the DESCR of a package you are about to install, and
you don't end up with what you wanted, but with something different, the
problem is with you (whoever "you" are) and not at all with pkgsrc.

  | OK, that's one vote [...]

My vote would be to remove git from pkgsrc entirely, but I don't think
that's likely to be a popular opinion...

Beyond that, you can count me as a very strong vote against ever renaming
anything (publicly visible) that has been around more than a couple of
weeks - however bad the name is, the pain and confusion caused by renaming
(and I mean the impact upon the users, not any technical issues with how
renaming is done) is almost always worse than simply having the "wrong"
name (in someone's opinion.)   (Something imported with a poor name
can be removed and imported again with a better one - if it is done
promptly - almost no-one will have noticed, and those that did are
obviously paying attention.)

So, if the option is to simply remove one of git's add-ons as useless
(or too big to be worth it) then I simply don't care.   On the other hand
if the plan would be to keep the current package but with a different name
(any different name) and make the package with the existing name be different
than it is now, then I object.   Leave it as it is.

kre



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