package: njam Version: 1.25-4 Severity: minor Tags: patch The short and long descriptions of njam aren't very nice:
The short description starts with the name of the program. Short
descriptions shouldn't do that. There is a lintian warning about this,
which seems to have been circumvented by using "The program Njam", which
looks even worse. Instead it can be
full-featured pacman-like game
Its features (cross-platform, multiplayer) can be detailed in the long
description. For the short description "full-featured" should be
enough. If you must mention one feature in the short description,
"cross-platform" isn't the best one either, see below.
The long description starts with useless (for the user) information: the
language and library that were used to write it. This information is
useful for some people, but they can get it from the debtags. Before
debtags, the long description would have been a proper place for it, but
at the end, not at the start.
Also, you use 3 spaces before the feature list. I'm not sure if that
works right everywhere; 2 spaces is documented to preserve the newlines.
Some of the mentioned features are irrelevant for Debian users:
* Runs on Windows, Linux, OpenBSD, FreeBSD, BeOS, MacOSX, MorphOS
This one, for example. However, due to the networked multiplayer mode
this isn't entirely true: it does mean that you can play with friends
who run these systems. Still, I'd suggest to write this in a different
way, since it isn't a direct feature for the Debian user.
* Open Source (GPL Licence)
Of course it is. If it wouldn't be free software, it wouldn't be in
Debian. One of the great things about Debian IMO is that users don't
have to bother reading licenses: if it's in Debian, it's free software.
So please just let that be true and don't bother the users with it.
They don't want to hear about licenses, they want to just assume it's
all fine.
The long description also contains a Homepage field, which should be
moved to a control field.
I suggest for the long description:
Njam is a pacman-like game with many features, including networked
multiplayer mode. It is available on many platforms.
.
Features:
* Single and multiplayer mode (local or network)
* Cooperative and competetive multiplayer modes
* Customizable level skins
* Integrated level editor
* Many different levels
* Great music and sound effects
Thanks,
Bas
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