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Date:      Tue, 30 Jul 1996 17:39:48 -0400 (EDT)
From:      Chuck Robey <chuckr@Glue.umd.edu>
To:        Narvi <narvi@haldjas.folklore.ee>
Cc:        Stefan Esser <se@zpr.uni-koeln.de>, andreas@klemm.gtn.com, ports@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: ports/print/ghostscript4
Message-ID:  <Pine.OSF.3.91.960730173504.18093F-100000@fiber.eng.umd.edu>
In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.3.91.960731002544.2694H-100000@haldjas.folklore.ee>

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On Wed, 31 Jul 1996, Narvi wrote:

> > > 
> > > It is not the case actually - there are cases when there is no newer 
> > > file, just a link with the new name to the old file...
> > 
> > I realize it's a case the the same data, new name, but it's the new name 
> > that I think is important.  Those of us that know enough, can simply 
> > rename the darn thing in our ports/distfiles, and I think that we owe 
> > that much to our less sophisticated users, not to inject gratuitous 
> > confusion.  This is too much of a hack for it to be institutionalized.
> 
> It still seems to me to be something institutionalised upon the port 
> maintainers - we shouldn't consider them the less sophisticated user's, 
> should we? 

Operating upon the principle of least astonishment, the natural files for 
a port are those released for that port, whether or not they show up on 
someone's ftp site as links or not.  That is obviously the most 
straightforward thing to do.  The question is whether we should 
institutionalize the violation of that, to save downloading time for 
those of us that can listen to ports, and make our own changes.  Such 
things are rare to begin with, and a note to ports will cover the vast 
moajority of those of us (I'm one of them) who might benefit.  Making 
this change a regular thing would inject confusion into a place that it's 
not really required.

I think I've beat this enough, if everyone else disagrees, I just wanted 
my say, I won't comment again.

----------------------------+-----------------------------------------------
Chuck Robey                 | Interests include any kind of voice or data 
chuckr@eng.umd.edu          | communications topic, C programming, and Unix.
9120 Edmonston Ct #302      |
Greenbelt, MD 20770         | I run Journey2 and n3lxx, both FreeBSD
(301) 220-2114              | version 2.2 current -- and great FUN!
----------------------------+-----------------------------------------------




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