Re: Synchronizing descriptions with GSRC?

[Brandon Invergo]

Hi Ludovic et al,

>> Perhaps it would be best to keep all canonical package descriptions,
>> short and long, in a single file under revision control somewhere, such
>> as in womb.  They would then be available for anyone who needs them,
>> should any need arise in the future and it would be easier for all
>> involved to stay in sync.  What do you think?
>
> Sounds good to me.

OK, I've finally gotten around to moving package descriptions (long and
short) to a file in Womb (gnumaint/pkgdescr.txt).  The file is
recutils-compatible.  

Currently, all of the long descriptions ("blurbs") are taken from GSRC.
Between Karl and I, we're currently in agreement that writing/adapting
new descriptions for all of the packages is better than straight copying
From websites/READMEs, mainly for keeping a certain level of consistency
(length, style, level of detail, etc.) between the descriptions.  It
also avoids any potential copyright problem, no matter how unlikely it
may be.  In addition to Guix and GSRC, these descriptions will also be
used to provide descriptions for featured packages on gnu.org, so they
can't be too long.

The file is fresh out of the oven, so there may be some changes after
Karl reviews it.  But anyway, it's there as a starting point.

> A related question is i18n: Guix uses gettext, and the plan is to use
> the Translation Project for the translation of synopses/descriptions
> too.  Should that be handled externally too?  If it is, we’d still need
> to have a gettext catalog for our purposes.  How could that work?

This is still something to work out.  Should the transltion be done in
Womb?  Can those be extracted easily for use in Guix?  I have no idea.
But again, at least we have a starting point now.

Cheers,
-brandon

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