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

[Tom Lord]

    > From: Jeremy Shaw <address@hidden>

The question underlying your question, I take from:

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

Much of the new stuff I'm working on just (wildly) increases
configurability and customizability --- in that sense, it is 
likely to help quite a bit.

To be more specific would be difficult.  What operations, exactly, do
you want users to be able to perform given just a debian package name?
Note that a usefully complete answer is likely to be pretty detailed.
For example, if you want to say "check out a tree for that" --- well:
what exactly does that mean?  Does it involve building a
configuration?  Does ``a tree for that'' depend on the user's
environment (e.g., which version of the linspire platform he's
running)?  What is the user supposed to be able to do with this tree?
etc.

-t