[packagekit] Properties and Supported

[Richard Hughes]

On Mon, 2008-02-18 at 12:24 +0100, Sebastian Heinlein wrote:
> What about the third party attribute? Should we handle this in the
> backend or the frontend? So only providing the origin of a package and
> let the frontend decide if it is part of the distro?

Sure. If the distro controls the backend data parameter then you can use
any format.

> > > > > support
> > > 
> > Is supported a boolean? If so we can add it to GetDescription trivially.
> 
> I am afraid that the GetDescription string gets quite long.

My compiler doesn't care :-)

> I will take a look at the Debian sections. Perhaps we can map them all
> to PackageKit groups or extend them by need.

Sure, I don't mind adding new group enums as we see fit. They are
essentially free to add. When we have too many, we can just switch to a
O(1) hash lookup function.

> > Sure, but this is very apt-specific right? I'm not sure such
> > apt-specific tags belongs in a common API. How could they be useful in a
> > GUI?
> 
> Right, perhaps they should only be used in the SearchDetail backend
> method.

Yup.

> > So if supported is "If the package is supported or is a third party
> > addon." what would the other filter be called? Feel free to change the
> > description of supported if required.
> 
> Not really. One filter is "Package is support by the distributor". The
> second one could be called "Package is provided by an ISV" (independent
> software vendor) or "Third party software". In the case of Ubuntu e.g.
> opera would appear in both groups: It is part of the Canonical partner
> repository, so not part of Ubuntu, but supported by Canonical.

Sure, I get the distinction, but why does it matter? As a user I want to
know if this specific package is supported, i.e. _someone_ supports it.
As an end user I don't think it's important if a package is supported by
a distro or an ISV - just that there will be security updates if they
are needed. Why would a user have to (or want to) choose between a
ubuntu packaged opera and a partner packaged opera?

Richard.