Re: Is it handling packages or symbolic links?

Hi again Jean,

Thanks a lot for the suggestions.  I have finally made some
improvements based on them:

    https://github.com/aspiers/stow/commit/e7e6c7fbde2532b83cb7ef5b8026316c99242bf3

There is still room for improvement, but this is all I have time for
right now.

On Wed, Apr 05, 2017 at 11:04:29AM +0300, Jean Louis wrote:
>Hello Adam,
>
>Yes, I already knew you know that, I did not know there are some
>changes in sources, which are not maybe reflected in the Info
>documentation of version 2.2.2.
>
>I propose "This manual describes GNU Stow (version), a program for
>managing the sets of symbolic links to make e.g distinct packages of
>software, or configuration files, or any kind of files, in one place
>in the filesystem to make them appear to be located in the other
>place.
>
>I propose "software packages" to be called in example forms, like e.g
>packages of software.
>
>And instead of symlink farm manager, I propose managing sets of
>symbolic links.
>
>On Tue, Apr 04, 2017 at 10:34:59PM +0100, Adam Spiers wrote:
>> Hi again Jean,
>>
>> On 4 April 2017 at 19:58, Jean Louis <[email protected]> wrote:
>> >Hello,
>> >
>> >I have read the documentation and have been using Stow long time, one
>> >year, actively. It is nice peace of software.
>> >
>> >Yet, I cannot agree it is "managing the installation of software
>> >packages".
>>
>> You should already know that I do not consider Stow to be a package
>> manager in the "normal" (modern) sense, since I wrote that the last time
>> we discussed this:
>>
>>     http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/info-stow/2016-11/msg00008.html
>>
>> It certainly does not attempt to have any of the same functionality as
>> modern package managers such as rpm, dpkg, nix, etc.
>>
>> That is why in 2012 I changed the web page and the README.md to
>> modernize the description of Stow and more accurately reflect what it is:
>>
>>     http://web.cvs.savannah.gnu.org/viewvc/stow/stow/stow.html?r1=1.17&r2=1.18
>>
>>     https://github.com/aspiers/stow/commit/b6f9ef2b2fb4ce11a28ec389dd620ede52ed948d
>>
>> That said, there is still room for the documentation to be improved:
>>
>> >It shall be corrected in the documentation, and also the --arguments
>> >shall be corrected in their descriptions of what it does.
>>
>> Patches are welcome for this.  I have filed this issue to track it:
>>
>>     https://github.com/aspiers/stow/issues/22
>>
>> > GNU Stow:
>> >
>> > - does not know anything about the package, it does not ready and meta
>> >   data of any "package", it cannot recognize that something is "a
>> >   software package", even if it can be used for software package. Yet
>> >   descriptions shall be more accurate, to make a distinction to the
>> >   real software package managers.
>> >
>> > - Installing package, deleting packages shall be renamed in the info
>> >   documentation, it is misleading. It does not know anything about
>> >   "package". It really does not matter for Stow if it is "software
>> >   package" or any kind of files, which are not considered software,
>> >   such as images, documents, or other non-software files.
>>
>> Actually Stow's documentation precisely defines what it considers a
>> "package" to be:
>>
>>     https://www.gnu.org/software/stow/manual/html_node/Terminology.html#Terminology
>>
>> and in that somewhat limited and unconventional / antiquated context,
>> it is technically correct to say that it is a package manager which is
>> capable of installing and deleting packages.
>>
>> However, given that these days, "package manager" has strong connotations
>> of something more sophisticated, this is prone to cause some confusion,
>> which is why I already started to change the wording and am happy to
>> continue doing so.
>>
>> >Please re-consider that, so that proper information is given to users.
>>
>> No reconsideration is needed, just patches :-)