Should example scripts be compressed?

[Nicholas Bamber]

I think the following IRC discussion covers all the issues perfectly 
well. Jawnsy and I look with interest as a consensus emerges.

(23:49:42) jawnsy: periapt: why did you add this to libimager-perl?
(23:49:43) jawnsy:  68784 periapt-guest override_dh_compress:
(23:49:43) jawnsy:  68784 periapt-guest    dh_compress -Xexamples
(23:51:49) KGB-2: pkg-perl jawnsy-guest r71425 libimager-perl (33 files 
in 12 dirs)
(23:51:49) KGB-2: pkg-perl * New upstream release
(23:51:49) KGB-2: pkg-perl * Bump to debhelper compat 8
(23:51:58) periapt: jawnsy: I don't see why scripts should be compressed.
(23:52:26) jawnsy: periapt: I don't see why they can't be, if they are 
example scripts
(23:52:47) jawnsy: periapt: scripts installed into bin/ are not 
compressed. that makes sense. example scripts? they're probably not used 
in a lot of cases, so no sense in installing them uncompressed IMO.
(23:52:55) periapt: You can easily read a compressed file. Can you 
easily execute a compressed script?
(23:53:20) jawnsy: periapt: if you can make a good argument for changing 
the way we install examples/ files, please do so (via the mailing list). 
otherwise I am inclined to remove that override
(23:53:54) periapt: jawnsy: So can you hold off removing until that is 
discussed?
(23:54:15) jawnsy: periapt: this package is now inconsistent with 99.99% 
of the other packages we have that also install examples
(23:54:36) jawnsy: periapt: certainly. if it's decided that not 
compressing example scripts is a good idea, we should talk to Joey Hess
(23:54:58) jawnsy: periapt: to get dh_installexamples or whatever not to 
compress things that are +x
(23:55:09) periapt: jawnsy: That statistic does not stand upto a 
second's worth of reflection.
(23:55:11) jawnsy: periapt: and secondly, we should add that override to 
all packages that install scripts into examples/
(23:56:41) jawnsy: periapt: your reasoned analysis for why we should 
change from the status quo is most welcome :-) -- I look forward to 
seeing it in the next few days
(23:57:03) KGB-1: pkg-perl jawnsy-guest r71426 libimager-perl 
debian/changelog
(23:57:03) KGB-1: pkg-perl Waits for clarification regarding compressed 
example/ scripts
(23:57:09) periapt: jawnsy: It's perfectly possible that current 
practice is suboptimal. I thought it was so obvious that I did not 
hesitate to add the override. Maybe it did not get into 
dh_installexamples because it is rare enough that it has so far not 
become an issue.