Notices

A XB-Maemo-Upgrade-Description control file field exists, but it's a really bad solution. It's not in any way related to the already-existing Debian changelog file (which provides upgrade descriptions) and it's not cumulative. We've discussed this on the mailing list some time ago, but I can't find the link right away. Basically, the problem is that you see only the changes of the *latest* version. Assume a changelog goes like this:

• 1.0 - Initial release
• 1.1 - Changed color of application icon
• 2.0 - Massive rewrite; config file is removed
• 2.1 - Minor bugfixes

Now, if a user has version 1.0 installed and then the application manager sees 2.1 and shows it in the upgrades. All the user sees is "Minor bugfixes", which would only be true if the user would be upgrading from 2.0 to 2.1, but in this case, the changelog should display all changelog messages (1.1, 2.0 and 2.1) starting from the currently-installed version. XB-Maemo-Upgrade-Description does not provide a way to do this.

To make a long story short: Avoid using XB-Maemo-Upgrade-Description and fill the debian/changelog file with good information, just like a normal Debian Developer would do. These changes are already shown on maemo.org/packages, and maybe the Application Manager will pick it up in the future.

It's just a visual thing - most of the one-line descriptions don't end in a full stop, which I feel looks nicer. If the other proposed "rule" about not having the one-line description being over a certain length is enforced, then we needn't worry about truncation.

I was mainly talking about the user experience when browsing within Application Manager. By definition the user will only see things listed there for Maemo/Fremantle/N900, so the one-line app description does not need to mention it.

Pelago: Do you think you can post your guidelines on the maemo.org Wiki as a subsection to the "UX" wiki page, just like the icons? I think improving and editing these is easier on the Wiki, and a wiki page is also more visible and easier to link to than a forum post. I like your ideas, btw

Well, I was worried about the fact that I have identically-named but incompatible apps in the OS2008 repositories, as well. So I was trying to avoid any confusion and heartache when people were clicking on "Install" from the maemo.org download pages.

As it turns out, 99.9999% of N900 owners don't even know that there were any other versions of the OS or any other previous devices that ran Maemo, so I shouldn't have worried at all.

Ouch other strange ...

As PyGTKEditor is specifically design for Maemo ... i don't think i should remove it too ... strange rules ...

Please be aware that I'm not imposing any rules, just making suggestions.

My thought process is that the average user browsing the list of apps to download via the Application Manager doesn't care whether an app is specifically designed for Maemo or a port from elsewhere. I feel that the one-line description need only say what the app actually does rather than that saying that it is "for Maemo" etc. The longer description can include more background information if you want.