From owner-freebsd-ports@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Feb 2 19:37:09 2009 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ports@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5F8F41065677 for ; Mon, 2 Feb 2009 19:37:09 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from wmoran@potentialtech.com) Received: from mail.potentialtech.com (internet.potentialtech.com [66.167.251.6]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3326B8FC18 for ; Mon, 2 Feb 2009 19:37:09 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from wmoran@potentialtech.com) Received: from vanquish.ws.pitbpa0.priv.collaborativefusion.com (pr40.pitbpa0.pub.collaborativefusion.com [206.210.89.202]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by mail.potentialtech.com (Postfix) with ESMTPSA id D4FDDEBC3F for ; Mon, 2 Feb 2009 14:18:36 -0500 (EST) Date: Mon, 2 Feb 2009 14:18:35 -0500 From: Bill Moran To: ports@freebsd.org Message-Id: <20090202141835.b44d09be.wmoran@potentialtech.com> X-Mailer: Sylpheed 2.5.0 (GTK+ 2.12.11; i386-portbld-freebsd7.0) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: Subject: A plea or sanity in port options menu X-BeenThere: freebsd-ports@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Porting software to FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 02 Feb 2009 19:37:09 -0000 I don't believe this is particularly useful: Options for port-fu [ ] BRG Enable BRG support [X] QFZ Enable QFZ support Quite honestly, if you can't figure out that checking the box next to BRG enables BRG support, then don't use a computer. However, if you don't already know what BRG _is_, then those menus are worthless gobbly-gook. So, you've held my hand long enough to teach me that putting an X in a box enables something, but you've given me absolutely NO idea what I've actually done. How about: Options for port-fu [ ] BRG Bernstein Riggs Guillotine parsing [X] QFZ Quantum Freeze Zulu rending At least that one gives me _some_ idea what those TLAs mean. This is so common in the ports infrastructure, that I'm sure a bazillion maintainers are going to scream at me for complaining about it. After all, _everyone_ else does the same thing. But it's completely worthless to have the description simply repeat what the tag is. It's also really bad UI design. Quite honestly, it makes me wonder if the port creator was even awake when they typed up the Makefile. Please, please, please stop this. I'm floored by the pervasiveness of this insanity, and there's absolutely no reason for it to continue. -- Bill Moran http://www.potentialtech.com http://people.collaborativefusion.com/~wmoran/