On Sun, 24 Dec 2006 18:02:36 +0000 T. Black said:
> Ninety days have now passed with no activity in this bug log...
Sorry, I've been thinking of other wild and crazy stuff. BTW, you
didn't 'cc:' me -- I was just reviewing the bug log, and saw your
message.
Well I need a change, so back to 'debram'. Package description
suggestion:
Description: Excellent branching catalog of available .debs
Debian GNU/Linux provides thousands upon daunting thousands of software
packages. Debram is a sorted and cross-referenced list of Debian
packages, like a library subject catalog of books, categorized into
broad classes then divided into finer, more specific branches. If
you know what you want your computer to do, but don't know if there's
a package that does it, debram can help.
(The adjective 'excellent' or something like it is needed, because this
isn't just any catalog, it's the best catalog.)
HTH...
PS: notes on how the above sausage was made, very optional.
Packages that use the term 'ramifi' in their one line descriptions:
% apt-cache search ' ' | wc -l
20718
% apt-cache search ' ' | grep -n ramifi
1977:debram - ramified catalog of available .debs
While thinking about that I made a counted list or words
used, and their frequency, within these one-line descriptions. Might
be useful...
% apt-cache search ' ' | sed 's/^[^-][^ ]* - //g' | \
tr "'"']["(),.!:];+=<>`{}' ' ' | tr ' ' '\n' | \
sed '/^[-0-9s/]*$/d' | tr '[:upper:]' '[:lower:]' | \
sort | uniq -c | sort -rg > /tmp/wordlist
% head wordlist
9042 for
3180 library
2985 the
2335 files
2294 and
2094 a
1815 to
1558 development
1282 of
1057 package
Pipes are great. Some substitutes for the adjective/noun pair
'ramified catalog'.
tree-like catalog
branched or branching catalog
hierarchical catalog
ontology (as bad if not worse)
What's most common? In full package descriptions, 'hierarch' is most used:
% for f in 'tree-like' branched branching ontology hierarch ; do echo
-n "$f: " ; apt-cache search "$f" | wc -l ; done
tree-like: 5
branched: 1
branching: 17
ontology: 0
hierarch: 132
'hierarch' is king of the one-liners too:
% for f in 'tree-like' branched branching ontology hierarch ; do echo
-n "$f: " ; apt-cache search "$f" | grep "$f" | wc -l ; done
tree-like: 1
branched: 0
branching: 0
ontology: 0
hierarch: 12
Any of the above code can be used to look for other synonyms of course.
Further critique of present long description one sentence at a time:
Debian GNU/Linux provides thousands upon daunting thousands of software
packages.
Basically OK.
Sorting them into broad classes then dividing and redividing
them into finer, more specific branches, the Debram ramifies Debian's
packages in much the same manner as a university library ramifies its
books.
Too complex. Begins with a verb. The definite article in "the Debram"
reminds me of "the Batman". Twice that 'ramifies' verb. Vague whether
"the Debram" refers to the package 'debram', the program
'/usr/bin/debram', or the catalog
'/usr/share/debram-data/debram.txt.gz'. (answer: the catalog )
"Dividing and redividing" would be OK, except the earlier sentence
used the same trope with 'thousands'.
Last:
If you know what you want your computer to do but do not yet
know the package to do it, you can find the package here.
Good English metre, like a slogan. But...
Surely "here" means "the debram package", but that "here" gets
vague after the three nouns in the sentence: 'you', 'computer' &
'package'.
"Yet" amplifies the implication that users shall find what they seek,
but there could be no such package. A variant:
If you know what you want your computer to do, but don't know if
there's package that does it, debram...
Every completion I think of is slogany:
...is your...
...best bet.
...pal.
...buddy
...sheppard and savior.
...is it. (So was "Coke".)
...can help.
...knows. (What evil lurks...)
...will.
...might.
...ought to.
...do. (Enallage)
...doth.
...sees all.
...makes your computer confess.
...hunts it down like a pack of dogs.
...can rake through the musty muck of mediocrity.
Unfortunately, a recent viewing of "The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio"
had a corrupting influence.
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