Martin Eberhard Schauer wrote: > Updating the German package description I found that the first sentence > of the description might be simplified or rephrased.
Yes, it needs something; "provides [...] common operation" is ungrammatical. > What does "provides support and common operation" mean? If the library > supports the format, I expect it to provide all necessary functionality > to work with the format. Providing the ability to perform operations > that are needed very often one could describe as "the ability to perform > common operations". From this point of view in "support *and* common > operations" and is wrong as common operations are a subset of full > support: > "and common operations" is superfluous. If the support is limited, I would > like to know the limitations or an enumeration of the capabilities. > > So I would start the description with something like > - This library provides support for the XPM image format, ... > - This library supports the XPM image format, ... > - This library enables your applications to handle the XPM image > format, ... I'd go for that first one. Or maybe the paragraph should just be about XPM format, so it can serve as boilerplate for the other packages in the set too, and the part specific to libxpm4 should just say "This package provides runtime support for XPM format". Looking at the whole description: # Description: X11 pixmap library # libXpm provides support and common operation for the XPM pixmap format, which # is commonly used in legacy X applications. XPM is an extension of the # monochrome XBM bitmap specificied in the X protocol. # . # More information about X.Org can be found at: # <URL:http://www.X.org> # . # This module can be found at # git://anongit.freedesktop.org/git/xorg/lib/libXpm Paragraphs two and three of that look redundant now that there are Homepage and Vcs-* fields. Is it really correct for applications that use XPM format to be described as "legacy"? XPM is my all-time favourite format for custom desktop icons (since you can create them in a text editor), and I've never seen any deprecation announcements. So maybe we can just say "traditional" X applications... Suggested patch attached. -- JBR with qualifications in linguistics, experience as a Debian sysadmin, and probably no clue about this particular package
--- control.pristine 2011-10-29 11:35:19.000000000 +0100 +++ control 2011-10-29 11:52:59.296548059 +0100 @@ -16,6 +16,7 @@ pkg-config, ghostscript, Standards-Version: 3.8.3 +Homepage: http://www.x.org Vcs-Git: git://git.debian.org/git/pkg-xorg/lib/libxpm Vcs-Browser: http://git.debian.org/?p=pkg-xorg/lib/libxpm.git @@ -26,15 +27,11 @@ Pre-Depends: ${misc:Pre-Depends} Depends: ${shlibs:Depends}, ${misc:Depends} Description: X11 pixmap library - libXpm provides support and common operation for the XPM pixmap format, which - is commonly used in legacy X applications. XPM is an extension of the - monochrome XBM bitmap specified in the X protocol. + X PixMap format is an extension of the monochrome X BitMap format + specified in the X protocol, and is commonly used in traditional X + applications. . - More information about X.Org can be found at: - <URL:http://www.X.org> - . - This module can be found at - git://anongit.freedesktop.org/git/xorg/lib/libXpm + This package provides runtime support for XPM format. Package: libxpm4-dbg Section: debug @@ -43,18 +40,11 @@ Priority: extra Depends: ${shlibs:Depends}, ${misc:Depends}, libxpm4 (= ${binary:Version}) Description: X11 pixmap library (debug package) - libXpm provides support and common operation for the XPM pixmap format, which - is commonly used in legacy X applications. XPM is an extension of the - monochrome XBM bitmap specified in the X protocol. - . - This package contains the debug versions of the library found in libxpm4. - Non-developers likely have little use for this package. + X PixMap format is an extension of the monochrome X BitMap format + specified in the X protocol, and is commonly used in traditional X + applications. . - More information about X.Org can be found at: - <URL:http://www.X.org> - . - This module can be found at - git://anongit.freedesktop.org/git/xorg/lib/libXpm + This package provides debug symbols. Package: libxpm-dev Section: libdevel @@ -62,32 +52,21 @@ Multi-Arch: same Depends: ${shlibs:Depends}, ${misc:Depends}, libxpm4 (= ${binary:Version}), libx11-dev, x11proto-core-dev Description: X11 pixmap library (development headers) - libXpm provides support and common operation for the XPM pixmap format, which - is commonly used in legacy X applications. XPM is an extension of the - monochrome XBM bitmap specified in the X protocol. - . - This package contains the development headers for the library found in - libxpm4. Non-developers likely have little use for this package. + X PixMap format is an extension of the monochrome X BitMap format + specified in the X protocol, and is commonly used in traditional X + applications. . - More information about X.Org can be found at: - <URL:http://www.X.org> - . - This module can be found at - git://anongit.freedesktop.org/git/xorg/lib/libXpm + This package contains the development headers for the libxpm4 library. + Non-developers likely have little use for this package. Package: xpmutils Architecture: any Pre-Depends: ${misc:Pre-Depends} Depends: ${shlibs:Depends}, ${misc:Depends} Description: X11 pixmap utilities - This package provides two tools, cxpm and sxpm. - . - cxpm is a tool to check the integrity of an XPM file. - . - sxpm is a tool to view XPM files, and takes a number of options. - . - More information about X.Org can be found at: - <URL:http://www.X.org> + X PixMap format is an extension of the monochrome X BitMap format + specified in the X protocol, and is commonly used in traditional X + applications. . - This module can be found at - git://anongit.freedesktop.org/git/xorg/lib/libXpm + This package provides two tools: cxpm (to check the integrity of an + XPM file) and sxpm (to view XPM files).
