[Pkg-samba-maint] Bug#496200: samba: package description overhaul

[Justin B Rye]

Steve Langasek wrote:
> > Problems shared with other packages in the set:
> > * Developers Reference 6.2.2 says the package synopsis should not
> > 	begin with an article.
> 
> The devref recommendation is wrong.  DevRef is not policy, and the
> grammatical justification given in 6.2.2 is bogus: it is *not* recommended
> to use an appositive clause, the recommendation is to use an appositive
> *phrase*, and the article is an integral part of the appositive phrase that
> should not be omitted.

In fact there's nothing particularly appositive about them, either.
You might be interested in the bugreport I've been slowly working on
to try to eliminate the bogus rationale:

http://lists.debian.org/debian-l10n-english/2008/08/msg00004.html
 
> Bad (and just plain incorrect) recommendations should not be followed merely
> because they've been adopted by the devref.

Standardisation in this context can do good even when it's
arbitrary; lists are easier to browse if the items are parallel.

[...]
> > * the samba.org URL should be a policy-5.6.23-compliant Homepage:
> > 	field on the source package.  In fact it already was, in the
> > 	version of samba currently in Lenny, but 2:3.2.1-1 puts it
> > 	back in the text.  Did something get reverted accidentally?
> 
> The version of samba currently in Lenny does /not/ have a Homepage: field,
> nor any mention of this in the changelog.  Which version were you looking
> at?

Apparently one of my own edits got into just this one line of my
"pristine" copy of the 3.2.0 control file.  Sorry to have wasted
your time. 
 
Your counter-proposal here is enough of an improvement on the
original for me not to want to quibble.
-- 
JBR
Ankh kak! (Ancient Egyptian blessing)