Further developments w.r.t. KDevelop documentation nightmare.

[Paul Derbyshire]

The KDevelop binary RPM I got definitely didn't have its documentation. The
en directory in the RPM itself has only a skeleton directory structure with
no content -- no HTML files. I surmise this is an oversight made by the
packager. I've discovered at least 2 other KDE application RPMs with
similar oversights (the RPM contains a documentation tree but no content),
namely the games Kvirus and Krepton. I would be unsurprised to find the
same incompetent individual was responsible for packaging all three; I
shall be examining the package origin information for the 3 packages to see
for sure. How convenient of the RPM system to include that information in
packages that get generated, to make it easier to discover these things and
track down whoever's responsible for screwing things up. :-)

Also, it is quite clear now based on some stuff I've heard mentioned that
there is supposed to be a symlink on KDE systems from
/usr/doc/kde/HTML/default to /usr/doc/kde/HTML/en or whatever the
appropriate locale is for the KDE installation. The same symlink is
expected by Kvirus. I'd surmise that the creation of the symlink is
supposed to be the responsibility of the KDE setup itself, when first
installed and when the locale setting is changed in Kcontrol.

This leaves one problem responsibility for which appears to lie squarely
with the Kdevelop team. And that is that the current Kdevelop sources for
KDE 1.1.x don't work.

To be precise, this happens:

[root at localhost pgd]# rpm -bi /pgd/myrpms/kdevel*.src.rpm
File contains non-printable characters(í):
/pgd/myrpms/kdevelop-1.0-4mdk.src.rpm
[root at localhost pgd]#        


Since I'm pretty sure the user's job is simply to download the rpm and
issue the above command, and the rpm just consists of source files, make
files, configure scripts, and pre and postinstall scripts obtained directly
from the kdevelop team, it seems clear that the kdevelop team somehow
allowed the published sources for 1.0-4 to include illegal characters in a
source file somewhere.

Please point me as soon as possible to the URL for a source RPM for a
version that contains known good sources! A mdk RPM is preferred; otherwise
a generic, non-distribution-dependent RPM. Failing that, at least please
indicate a version number for which the published sources will actually
compile out of the box, and for which they certainly don't have such
egregious errors as to include non-ASCII characters!

Meanwhile, it might be a good idea to respond to the problem in 1.0-4 by
"pulling it off the shelf". Tell rpmfind.net and anywhere else that you
know that carries kdevelop sources that you're recalling the source pack
for 1.0-4 because of a typo, and post it on the Web site as well; any
responsible redistributor of the sources will be checking it periodically
for new versions and stuff, so they'll see the announcement and act on it.
(As for irresponsible redistributors, if they don't see the message or
don't act on it, well screw them. :-))

I would like the information within the hour, if possible, or at least
within 24 hours.

-- 
   .*.  "Clouds are not spheres, mountains are not cones, coastlines are not
-()  <  circles, and bark is not smooth, nor does lightning travel in a
   `*'  straight line."    -------------------------------------------------
        -- B. Mandelbrot  |http://surf.to/pgd.net derbyshire at globalserve.net
_____________________ ____|________                          Paul Derbyshire
Programmer & Humanist|ICQ: 10423848|