George Danchev wrote:
> On Tuesday 05 September 2006 13:21, Hamish Moffatt wrote:
>
> > This sounds interesting but why is it useful to have a package?
>
> Well, because it is easier for Debian users to search for, install, upgrade
> such books. Basically on the same line wrt packaging are the c-cpp-reference
> package (although not being so exhaustive) and ocaml-book-en|fr (being a very
> serious book, but unfortunately in non-free).
Let me add to that the following:
- One of the backbones of Debian is to give back to the community what
basically belongs to the community. There's no need to restrict that to
executable software and its associated documentation like user guides and
man-pages. The Annotations are used by a large number of people all over the
world. If you'd like to see some reactions, consider browsing through
http://www.icce.rug.nl/documents/cplusplus.fanmail.txt. It might also be
enlightning to ask Google to search for 'C++ Annotations'.
The large number of people already using the Annotations seems like a
good basis for deciding that the Annotations are something `for the
community'. But if you look at Google's list, then you'll see that many
links refer to old versions. That's a pity, and by adding the Annotations
to Debian's set of packages it will be very easy for all those people to keep
their versions up-to-date or to obtain an installation of their own.
- Related to the above: I have been approached by publishers asking me to
allow them to publish the Annotations. The problem here has always been that I
also would like to remain to be able to upgrade them. The situation could
arise where the publisher publishes an outdated version, which becomes
unattractive since a more recent version has appeared on the Internet.
When the Annotations are added to Debian this problem does not occur: although
Debian can be considered the `publisher' it will always be simple to
upgrade. Nobody would suffer any disadvantage from that, and everybody
involved would benefit. I like win-win situations ;-)
- The Annotations will benefit, too. By now they exist for well over a
decade, and from the moment they appeared on the Internet, people have been so
kind as to send in suggestions for clarifications or repairs. Debian's
community consists of a large group of knowledgeable C++ programmers, and I'm
sure many useful suggestions for improvements will come from this group, which
will only result in an improvement of the C++ Annotations's quality.
--
Frank B. Brokken
Computing Center, University of Groningen
(+31) 50 363 9281
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