Comps, or, Making it Easier for Users to Find Software

[Wart]

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Jeremy Katz wrote:
> With FC5 on the way and the advent of the repo-aware replacement for
> system-config-packages (pirut), we're now in a much better position for
> making it easy for users to gain access to applications.
> 
> So, you might ask, what can I do to help?  Well, if you maintain an
> application which makes sense for a user to select[1], check out the
> comps module and make sure that your package is listed in a reasonable
> group in the comps-fe5.xml.in file.  If it's not, feel free to add it
> using the following as a template if your package were named "foo":
>   <packagereq type="optional">foo</packagereq>
> If you think there needs to be a new group, please let me know.
> 
> We'll eventually have the file being automatically updated with each
> Extras push -- for now, it's a manual process for me to drop the updated
> file in.
> 
> Jeremy
> 
> [1] So, what criteria makes sense here?  In general, it's going to be
> applications which show up in the menus somewhere.  Libraries should
> almost *never* be explicitly listed and instead pulled in via
> dependencies.  Also, most text-mode utilities don't really fit in unless
> they have a pretty large established user-base.  Given that the primary
> use is with a GUI, selecting a lot of text-mode things make little
> sense.  If you have questions as to whether it makes sense or not, feel
> free to contact me.

Hi Jeremy,

A number of new games have been added to Fedora Extras and the
comps-fe5.xml.in file since you announced this, but they don't show up
when running "yum groupinfo games" (or in the pirut 'games' category) on
a FE5 system.  'worminator' and 'freedoom' are two examples of games
that don't show up, yet are listed in comps-fe5.xml.in.

The Games SIG has been adding quite a few new packages lately.  Is there
something that we can do to help automate the update of comps-fe5.xml?

Additionaly, it seems that the FE games are listed as 'optional'
packages in yum, which means that users can't use 'yum groupinstall
games' as a shortcut to get all of them.  What determines if a package
is 'optional' or 'required'?  Would it be possible to change it so that
users can get all of the games via 'yum groupinstall', either by
reclassifying the FE5 games as 'required', or by creating a new category
for these games?

- --Mike
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