[tex-live] Better ways to find packages and documentation

[Florent Rougon]

karl at freefriends.org (Karl Berry) wrote:

> We already have the new TL "database", which is not XML and isn't going
> to be.  If we're going to add documentation tag information (what tags?
> is there a succinct list?),

There is no list that I'm aware of, and creating a good list is not a
trivial task, but will have to be done (well, it's relatively easy to
create a bad list; what is difficult is to create a good list with not
too many tags, no overlapping between them, orthogonal facets and to
ensure that the limited set of tags does cover most needs).

> then it seems to me it would be best to add the information to that
> database instead of somewhere separate. I don't understand what you
> are debating.

I was under the impression that the source of the tags had to be the
Catalogue. In which case, well, it will be XML.

Then I said I could get the tags directly from the Catalogue in XML
format, provided there exists a reliable link between the tlpdb file and
the Catalogue (by package name being a must, by document id being an
option). But it is also possible to have the tags carried over to the
tlpdb file; in this case, if you/Norbert ensure that all the metadata I
need ends up in the tlpdb file, then I don't need the Catalogue at all
for writing my program.

Norbert chose the second solution, which is fine with me. I only
mentioned the possibility of storing the tags in a separate file (not
necessarily XML; debtags does exactly that, not in XML but in RFC-2822)
instead of in the tlpdb files, in case you don't want to "pollute" it
with the tags. But that is only a proposal, nothing I want to impose on
anyone.

All of these possibilities are fine by me; I just have to know.

-- 
Florent