fill in the description a bit more; remove reference to obsolete

[developers-reference.git] / developers-reference.sgml

diff --git a/developers-reference.sgml b/developers-reference.sgml
index 5ecbb3f39f9e6fe72cf535353a8816c5f45c688e..a16315578dc105b9cd3d3bad14584e972940013c 100644 (file)
--- a/developers-reference.sgml
+++ b/developers-reference.sgml
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@
   <!-- common, language independant entities -->
   <!entity % commondata  SYSTEM "common.ent" > %commondata;
   <!-- CVS revision of this document -->
-  <!entity cvs-rev "$Revision: 1.48 $">
+  <!entity cvs-rev "$Revision: 1.50 $">
 
   <!-- if you are translating this document, please notate the RCS
        revision of the developers reference here -->
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@
 
       <copyright>
        <copyrightsummary>
-copyright &copy;1998, 1999 Adam Di Carlo</copyrightsummary>
+copyright &copy;1998 &ndash 2001 Adam Di Carlo</copyrightsummary>
        <copyrightsummary>
 copyright &copy;1997, 1998 Christian Schwarz</copyrightsummary>
        <p>
@@ -84,8 +84,9 @@ be found in the <url id="&url-debian-policy;" name="Debian Policy
 Manual">.
       <p>
 Furthermore, this document is <em>not an expression of formal
-policy</em>.  It contains documentation for the Debian system, and
-generally agreed-upon best practices.
+policy</em>.  It contains documentation for the Debian system and
+generally agreed-upon best practices.  Thus, it is what is called a
+``normative'' document.
 
 
     <chapt id="new-maintainer">Applying to Become a Maintainer
@@ -1965,6 +1966,21 @@ of Debian policy as well as some checks for common errors.  The use of
 id="upload-checking"> and <ref id="lintian-reports">.
 
 
+      <sect id="debconf">
+        <heading><package>debconf</package></heading>
+        <p>
+<package>debconf</package> provides a consistent interface to
+configuring packages interactively.  It is user interface
+intedependant, allowing end-users to configure packages with a
+text-only interface, an HTML interface, or a dialog interface.  New
+interfaces can be added modularly.
+        <p>
+Many feel that this system should be used for all packages requiring
+interactive configuration.  <package>debconf</package> is not
+currently required by Debian Policy, however, that may change in the
+future.
+
+
       <sect id="debhelper">
        <heading><package>debhelper</package>
        <p>