Re: Not so technical, but your feedback is requested

[Christian Koch <cfkoch%sdf.lonestar.org@localhost>]

On Sat, Jul 19, 2014 at 07:18:04PM +0200, Marc Balmer wrote:
> We are soliciting opinions about removing the file /usr/share/misc/airports.
> The file might have been useful in past times, but in 2014 maybe not so much
> anymore.
> 
> Reasons are:
> 
> - The file is outdated compared to  IATA sources
> - The information is available online and more complete/accurate there
> - Why keep a local copy of thia very particular information when it is
> impractical to maintain?  FWIW,  there is also an ICAO list of airport codes;
> and an IATA list of tailway stations etc. do we have these?  No. So why keep a
> list of airports?
> - Changes to this file have recently been used to make politcal statements,
> leading to data no longer being compatible with IATA listings.
> 
> (In my personal opinion, the file is almost always outdated, incomplete and
> otherwise more or less unusable.)

Although I find the airports file useful from time to time, it would probably be
better to put it into package management. That way, people with the bandwidth to
update it actually will be able to. Also, people who find the airport file
useless would be OK with not having it on their systems. (OTOH, you don't need
to install *all* of the installation sets...)

While on the subject, I suppose this is also true for /usr/share/dict/words. In
my experience even that list is outdated! (It can also be debated what should
count as a word.) For example, neither "kid" nor "kidding" appear, which are
totally English words.

I have personally always wanted an offline English dictionary more than any
other reference (with definitions and everything) but (1) recent editions of the
most important dictionaries, such as Merriam-Webster, are under strict copyright
and are non-free, and (2) it really shouldn't be the responsibility of an OS to
maintain this kind of information anyway. 

-Christian