Hello,
On graphic software websites, in general the most visited page is the one with
the screenshots because it give a good overview of the software.
In general a screenshot is better that the limited description provided by the
Debian control file.
I think that tools like synaptic or Debian Installer should have an option to
provided a screenshot or/and the project logo with the text description.
SUGGESTION:
* file access
Pictures must be available without the installed packaged.
Files access:
- network source: The screenshot can be available directly in the pool with
the .deb files. It also possible to download a tarball[1] to reduct http/ftp
request.
- other sources: The user download a tarball[1] when he add a new source and
install it (e.g: /var/cache/apt/pixmaps)
[1] We can split screenshots tarball to avoid a new download just for a little
change. e.g: 26 tarballs of about 2M (or more), one per first letter of
packages.
Files size:
There is about 2500 X11 based packages in Debian. This is an estimation of the
global cost on the mirrors with different pictures size. One picture per
packages.
jpg 200x150 8bit pictures: 8.5K => 21M
png 200x150 8bit pictures: 21K => 52.5M
jpg 400x300 8bit pictures: 30K => 75M
png 400x300 8bit pictures: 57K => 142M
I don't think that it is a big problem.
Network consumption:
Screenshoots will not change for every new release of a software. One update
or less per year is i think enough. If we split this archive and with cache
mechanism we could reduct a lot the download.
I suggest to have Pixmaps:" entry in the control file with the name of one or
more screenshots or logo so we'll be able to have a same picture shared with
different release of a package.
Regards,
Gonéri
