OK, there are three pieces of information that is present in all packages: the package name, the description synopsis, and the extended description, and there are restrictions on how they interact. (Not actually restrictions as in MUST NOT in the RFC 2119 sense, but a strong SHOULD NOT). The Policy does not talk about the actual name.
3.1: The package name must be unique. 3.4: The description as a whole must be descriptive. (Duh.) The description synopsis should contain the most important information for such cases when the extended synopsis is not displayed, such as the “apt-cache search” output, one line per package. 3.4.1: The description synopsis should not be redundant when displayed along with the package name. I interpret the “Remember that in many situations the user may only see the synopsis line - make it as informative as you can” part as “the synopsis line must be reasonably descriptive in absence of the extended description”, not as “the synopsis line can be displayed without the package name in sight”. 3.4.2: The extended description is not a continuation of the synopsis; it needs to stand on its own. Presumably, it is displayed in a separate pane or as a separate text section. Also presumably, getting the extended description requires some user effort. For the Update Manager, I think we can agree the extended description is mostly irrelevant: it makes no sense to display it for all packages. Its place is in the details pane, along with the relevant changelog excerpt. The question is about the package name and the description synopsis. You defend the position that the description synopsis is sufficient. However, the synopsis cannot contain the package name, by 3.4.1. And many packages have actual name as the package name, so, in general, the synopsis will not contain the actual name. It follows that, until and unless a new field containing the actual name is added, we need the package name displayed at all times, because it’s the closest that we have. -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1180899 Title: Update list hides important details To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/update-manager/+bug/1180899/+subscriptions -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs
