Bug#622984: dconf-tools: uninformative package description

[Justin B Rye]

Package: dconf-tools
Version: 0.7.3-4
Severity: wishlist
Tags: patch

Given that packages.debian.org has had an unrelated "dconf" since 2005
("D" for "Distributed"), the package descriptions for dconf-tools etc.
need some beefing up.

 Description: Simple key-based configuration system
  dconf is a simple key-based configuration system.
  .
  This package contains the dconf command line tools

For a start, this is repetitive - if you're going to put the same
information in the synopsis and the long description boilerplate,
please consider saying it with different keywords!

While "key-based" might seem self-explanatory to those who are already
aware that the context is data storage, for anybody else it could be
talking about security or input devices (or maybe even music).

And what kind of "configuration" is it talking about - is it going to
perform the "configure" stage of a kernel build?  Tune my graphics
hardware?  Reorganise my corporate network for key-based routing?  The
only real clue is in the "Homepage:" field (and maybe the "D" in
"D-Conf"?) - if it's storing settings for desktop applications then
surely the word "desktop" should appear at least once in the
description.
 
Upstream has a much more extensive blurb, but one that's obviously
aimed at developers interested in how it's implemented rather than
users who are wondering whether it should be installed on their PC;
and besides, if "its main purpose is to provide a backend to GSettings
on platforms that don't already have configuration storage systems",
that only makes its presence on Debian systems more mysterious.  So
instead of copying that I would suggest following this template:

 Description: simple configuration storage system - [...]
  DConf is a low-level key/value database designed for storing desktop
  environment settings.
  .
  [...]

Of course there's still plenty of room for more information here.
 • Does dconf provide a lightweight alternative to some other package
   that it would therefore make sense to mention?
 • Should it say something like "integrated with D-Bus and PolicyKit"
   as a hint at its FreeDesktop connection?
 • Should it mention GNOME 3, or is there some idea of keeping it
   desktop-neutral?
 • Should it mention GSettings, or is the idea that not all of these
   packages necessarily have anything to do with GSettings?  (I find
   dconf-gsettings-backend a bit baffling - it doesn't depend on
   libdconf0, so how does it provide a dconf back-end for GSettings?)

In the per-package detail paragraphs, I have mostly limited myself to
grammar/punctuation/spelling fixes, but for libdconf-doc (which
ignores Debian Policy 9.10 and hides everything under
/usr/share/gtk-doc/html/dconf) I'll add a mention of "devhelp format",
and for dconf-tools I'll add a mention of the other dconf.

-- System Information:
Debian Release: wheezy/sid
  APT prefers testing
  APT policy: (500, 'testing'), (50, 'unstable')
Architecture: i386 (i686)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.38-2-686 (SMP w/1 CPU core)
Locale: LANG=en_GB.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_GB.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash
-- 
JBR
Ankh kak! (Ancient Egyptian blessing)
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