RFC: Description text in packages

[Matthew Woehlke]

Nicolas Mailhot wrote:
> So is your argument that because there is inertia, trying something new
> won't work, because inertia will necessarily win?
> 
> Or is your argument that takeup will be difficult in the US?

I've been saying that for the last several messages, and trying to get 
you to propose a means of starting to overcome said inertia.

> I hope you realise that Fedora is an international project,

I do. I also realize that there is a certain amount of US influence on 
technology. (Some of it, alas, is from a certain Redmond company that 
doesn't care as much as they might about international users. 
Unfortunately, said company also exerts a lot of control on hardware, 
which is part of the problem.)

> Even MS has magic symbols on something similar to xkb's 3rd and 4th
> levels, and I've not seen it hurting either windows or US people in the
> USA.

Um... no, those would be the META and MENU keys. As I already pointed 
out, one of those is already generally used for shortcuts. (And I'm 
saying that not just from personal experience, but also from usability 
discussions regarding assignment of shortcut keys.)

> The markup Richard is so enamoured of is just as hard to
> educate about.

I disagree. I'm already exposed to that sort of markup, whereas I 
/don't/ have an AltGr / Compose key on my keyboard.

Perhaps in an absolute sense (i.e. starting with someone totally 
ignorant of both systems) that is true. In a practical sense, there is 
already inertia for markdown, if only because people do something 
similar to it already. While the playing field may be level for some 
people, I think that markdown is likely more wide-spread.

-- 
Matthew
Please do not quote my e-mail address unobfuscated in message bodies.
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