Tag reorganization proposal: devel::* [on facets and groups]

[Peter Rockai]

On Thu, Jun 29, 2006 at 07:57:50PM +0200, Benjamin Mesing wrote:
> I think devel should contain tags that help
> searching for development tool. 

Yes and no. Facets are not "just" groups of related tags. Facets are supposed
to have a clearly defined meaning and give context to their tags. You could
say that protocol and network (and web) should be merged, because their tags
are all related. Same argument applies to interface, uitoolkit and x11.

However, we don't use groups but facets, which have the additional property of
defining a "point of view" for their tags. So the x11 facet has tags that
describe packages from the point of view of x11, interface has tags describing
packages in terms of what kind of user interface they have and uitoolkit which
toolkit they use. Although they all deal with user interfaces, they deal with
different aspects of user interfaces and that's why they are separate facets.

Same applies to software development and language. Both deal with software
development, but from different viewpoints -- one is "how is the package used
within development" another is "what language is the package useful with".

For example, qt designer is useful to create user interfaces. It is useful
with C++, python, perl and ruby (and probably more). Then, gcc is useful to
compile programs. It is useful with C. Notice that it is natural to describe
development package from both viewpoints separately. It is also natural to
pose the questions separately: "What languages can i use with qt designer?"
"What can i do with qt designer?"

Yours, Peter.

-- 
Peter Rockai | me()mornfall!net | prockai()redhat!com | +421907533216 
   http://blog.mornfall.net | http://web.mornfall.net

"In My Egotistical Opinion, most people's C programs should be
 indented six feet downward and covered with dirt."
     -- Blair P. Houghton on the subject of C program indentation