[Catalog-sig] First cut at metadata

Guido van Rossum guido@python.org
Thu, 16 Nov 2000 11:48:24 -0500


Looking good.  Some nits:

> Information about an author
> ===========================
> Name
> Home page
> GnuPG/PGP key (both the actual key, and just the ID)
> E-mail address (used as ID?)
> E-mail address public: y/n

On the one hand I like using the email address as ID, because it
avoids having to remember my username for a site I don't visit very
often.  On the other hand it may become a pain to change -- users
change their email address all the time and we must support this.

> Information about a package
> ===========================
> Name
> Version
> Supported Platforms

Should we give a fixed set of choices, or a free form field?  The
problem with a fixed set of choices is that there are lots of subtle
variations, e.g. do you present Windows as a choice or Win95, Win98,
WinNT, Win2000, WinME.  Ditto Unix or Linux or Red Hat Linux or Red
Hat Linux 6.1?  The problem with free form is that it's hard to use in
a search (e.g. for many people Unix and Linux are synomyms).

> Description
> Keywords
> Homepage URL
> Author IDs
> License

I recommend to use the categories offered by sourceforge here.

> Download link
> Date of release
> 
> Left out for now: Dependency information 

Submittors could be urged to add this to the Description text if there
are special requirements.

> Information about a document
> ============================
> Name
> Author
> Description
> URL of HTML version
> URL of printable version
>   (Either URL can be omitted if not applicable.)

What about downloadable versions?

--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)