Bug#895348: gnome-panel: Description has been misleading since GNOME 3

[Justin B Rye]

Dmitry Shachnev wrote:
> I have connected your suggestions, the description on upstream site [1], and
> my own thoughts on this, and the result is this description:
> 
> Description: traditional panel, used in GNOME Flashback
>  GNOME Flashback continues the traditional desktop interface which was used
>  in GNOME 2.x, but using the modern GNOME technologies.
                           ^^^
That should probably be "using modern GNOME technologies."

>  .
>  GNOME Panel is a part of the GNOME Flashback desktop, and provides panels
>  and default applets for the desktop. A panel is a horizontal or vertical
>  bar that can be added to each side of the screen. A panel can contain
                            ^^^^ ^^^^
"Sides" normally means only left or right; if the default is to put
them at top and bottom, it should really use some other word.  And it
isn't necessarily added to each and every one of them.  So

   bar that can be added to any edge of the screen. A panel can contain
or
   bar that can be added to a screen margin. It can contain


>  various applets, such as the menu bar, application launch icons, the clock,
>  volume controls, displays for the network connectivity, battery level, and
>  other system monitors.

I think the "and" is misplaced - it's not "such as A, B, C, D,
displays-for-E, F, and G", it's "such as A, B, C, D, and displays (for
E, F, & G)".  Also, no "the" in "displays for network connectivity".

So:

  Description: traditional panel, used in GNOME Flashback
   GNOME Flashback continues the traditional desktop interface which was used
   in GNOME 2.x, but using modern GNOME technologies.
   .
   GNOME Panel is a part of the GNOME Flashback desktop, and provides panels
   and default applets for the desktop. A panel is a horizontal or vertical
   bar that can be added to a screen margin. It can contain various applets,
   such as the menu bar, application launch icons, the clock, volume controls,
   and displays for network connectivity, battery level, and other system
   monitors.
 
> Also Simon asked me on IRC:
> 
>> <smcv> mitya57: it would be great if at least gnome-(session-)?flashback
>> (but perhaps not -panel etc.) also had a very brief mention of the reason(s)
>> to prefer -flashback over other GNOME forks
>> <smcv> mitya57: presumably the advantage of flashback over GNOME 3 is either
>> that it's better for change-averse users, or better for old hardware, or
>> some mixture of the two?
> 
> So I also propose the following description for the gnome-session-flashback
> package:
> 
> Description: tranditional desktop session based on GNOME technologies
                  ^
Typo!          traditional

(This makes me feel ancient - I didn't own a computer until I was
middle-aged, and already my desktop is far too old-fashioned to count
as "traditional"... mutter, grumble.)

>  GNOME Flashback continues the traditional desktop interface which was used
>  in GNOME 2.x, but using the modern GNOME technologies.
                           ^^^ as above
>  .
>  The key parts of GNOME Flashback are the GNOME Panel and the Metacity
>  window manager. All other components, such as the file manager, the
>  settings center and the various applications, are coming from mainstream
>  GNOME.

No need for a progressive construction there - just:
                                               , come from mainstream

More pedantically, the style of comma usage we applied above would add
an extra one in this list: "the file manager, the settings center,
and..."

>  .
>  GNOME Flashback has lower hardware requirements than GNOME Shell, and
>  consumes less memory.
>  .
>  This package contains the required components for the GNOME Flashback
>  session. It can be started from a display manager such as GDM.

Does this .deb contain all the requored components or just ensure
they're available?  If the latter, maybe it should say "provides" -
but that's too pedantic to go in my revised version below:

  Description: traditional desktop session based on GNOME technologies
   GNOME Flashback continues the traditional desktop interface which was
   used in GNOME 2.x, but using modern GNOME technologies.
   .
   The key parts of GNOME Flashback are the GNOME Panel and the Metacity
   window manager. All other components, such as the file manager, the
   settings center, and the various applications, come from mainstream
   GNOME.
   .
   GNOME Flashback has lower hardware requirements than GNOME Shell, and
   consumes less memory.
   .
   This package contains the required components for the GNOME Flashback
   session. It can be started from a display manager such as GDM.

-- 
JBR	with qualifications in linguistics, experience as a Debian
	sysadmin, and probably no clue about this particular package