Re: [Gnu-arch-users] request for slight more permissive category names

[Brian May]

>>>>> "Jeremy" == Jeremy Shaw <address@hidden> writes:

    Jeremy> Is there some technical reason that category names are so
    Jeremy> heavily restricted? I am trying to define a policy for
    Jeremy> storing debian packages in tla and maintain changes
    Jeremy> against them. debian package names would map perfectly[1]
    Jeremy> to category names, except category names can not contain a
    Jeremy> . or + or start with a number[2]. Obviously, I can do
    Jeremy> substitutions like use % instead of + and , instead of
    Jeremy> . but it's a bit annoying.

I can't comment here.

    Jeremy> Of course, I already have to heavily mangle the version
    Jeremy> number, since tla version numbers can only contain [0-9.].
    Jeremy> I have heard bantering about version aliases and other
    Jeremy> such fancies. If implemented, would this allow me to use
    Jeremy> more natural category names and version numbers?  I would
    Jeremy> want anyone using my archive to be able to use the
    Jeremy> expressive names transparently.

Version numbers aren't just a static string, they need to be
comparable too.  This will always be an issue, unless tla adopts
Debian's (complicated and arbitrary) policy on comparing version
numbers. I doubt this will happen.

Have you seen the approach tla-buildpackage takes?
-- 
Brian May <address@hidden>