GLEP:34

Abstract
A  file is currently used to provide extra metadata (long descriptions, herd and maintainer information) about a package. It is proposed that these files also be used to describe the purpose of a category.

Motivation
Category names are short and not entirely clear. Adding arbitrary length long descriptions to categories would provide several advantages:


 * It would clarify the meaning of categories for users, who may not be aware of some of the abbreviations or acronyms we use.
 * With the use of XML  attributes, it would allow for additional non-English descriptions (simply using longer category names would not allow this).
 * It would help developers better select a relevant category for their package, rather than dumping everything into  and   as is done currently.
 * It would help illustrate which categories are too broad or badly defined in scope, making any future category splits easier.

Specification
It is proposed that the existing  format be used. Even though XML sucks, there is already a framework in place for these files. The filename will be. The character set used shall be UTF-8 for consistency with GLEP 31.

A new top level  element shall be added to the DTD. This is necessary because the existing  element is not appropriately named, and doing a global rename would be impractical. Using a different element would also permit additional category-specific data to be added at a later date.

The existing  elements shall be used for descriptions. The  attribute shall be used to indicate the human language of the description -- all categories must have at least an English  description.

The  and   elements are not generally relevant at the category level. They may be specified as a fall-back "assume that everything in this category is maintained by these people", but this must not be used as a replacement for proper per-package metadata.

Examples
The  category could use a   file like the following:

 <!DOCTYPE catmetadata SYSTEM "http://www.gentoo.org/dtd/metadata.dtd"> The app-vim category contains plugins and syntax file packages for the Vim text editor. Die Kategorie app-vim enthält Plugins und Syntax-Pakete für den Vim Texteditor.

Implementation Requirements
The DTD file would need to be updated to include the  element.

A metadata file would have to be added to every category in the tree. This could be done over a period of time.

would need a few small changes to be able to handle per-category metadata files.

The "packages.gentoo.org metadata" bug would need to be updated to ask for category descriptions as well.

The metadata documentation would require some additions.

Backwards Compatibility
The metadata DTD will remain backwards compatible.

The category metadata files will need to be considered "optional until implemented" rather than immediately becoming mandatory.

Copyright
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/.