Faceted tags

Erich Schubert erich@debian.org
Mon, 12 Apr 2004 18:56:32 +0200


Hi,

> But then, you'd have to somehow distinguish things like Python, Perl
> and Java which effectively are compilers, but not in the sense every
> user expects it - devel::compiler::notreally?

devel::interpreter - I would not consider Perl, Python or Java as
compilers in the sense of generating native code. They create a binary
form of their code, but you still need to interprete this bytecode.
Also the technical realisation is less important here than the way they
are _used_. Of course you will always be able to build a case where it
doesn't match completely. If that actually matters we can consider
retagging the package or adding new tags.
(For java: a package containing a javac or gcj should of course be
tagges devel::compiler; gij should be tagges devel::interpreter)

> Ummm... A daemon can have an interface - For example, editing the
> configuration and sending a HUP can still be seen as an
> interface. Some daemons can offer an interface to change some

This is what we consider a daemon interface, yes.
Heck a webserver certainly has some kind of interface, hasn't it?
But using services or functions of an application is something different
from the application interface itself.
I can do "cat file > /dev/audio", so does cat have an audio interface???

> to noninteractively translate a .doc to a .pdf? ;-) ), I do have
> Apache on my laptop and desktop machines... But that is a use that
> goes out of the common use - Apache is _not_ a desktop package,

So tagging apache as server application is fine, isn't it?
Tagging is about where you would search for it.
A real home-use-only-webserver could of course put into desktop.
For example nullsmtpd. wwwoffle maybe should have both ::desktop and
::server - it makes sense to be used on a desktop system, but also on a
home network server.
Maybe we should make these more detailed:
::corporate-desktop
::home-desktop
::workgroup-server
::internet-server

Greetings,
Erich Schubert
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