Re: GNOME upgrade

[Timothy Murphy <tim maths tcd ie>]

On Mon, Aug 02, 1999 at 03:54:11PM -0400, sungod wrote:

> >Shouldn't some sort of README file come with GNOME upgrades?
> 
> They do.

I just looked again at the announcement I received of the latest GNOME upgrade,
and there was no mention of a README, or indeed of any documentation,
simply a list of RPM files.

> >It's pretty confusing to a GNOME newbie like me
> >to just be given a list of 17 (or whatever) RPM files.
> 
> If you don't like RPMs, don't use them. If you are merely confused 
> because you don't know how RPM works, try typing "man rpm". 

I said I was a GNOME newbie, not a Linux or RedHat newbie.
I know perfectly well how RPMs work.
What I don't know is which of the many RPMs mentioned is required,
and which are secondary,
which order they should be installed in (if that matters),
and whether they require any other RPMs or libraries
apart from those mentioned.
(When installing GNOME originally,
I found that the order of installation,
although unspecified, did indeed matter;
and several other RPMs were required,
although never mentioned.)

> I think RPM even puts them in 
> /usr/doc/<packagename> IIRC.

If you took the trouble to look at the /usr/doc/g*/README files,
you would see that they are completely useless.
In any case, I was speaking of a README for the upgrade bundle,
not the individual RPMs.

> >Am I alone in feeling that GNOME developers
> >are somewhat lacking in common sense?
> 
> Probably, seeing as you don't appear to have a handle on how package 
> management works yet. 

Even if I didn't understand how RPMs work -- and I do --
I cannot see what possible relevance this would have
to the common sense of the GNOME developpers.


-- 
Timothy Murphy  
e-mail: tim@maths.tcd.ie
tel: +353-1-2842366
s-mail: School of Mathematics, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland