tags instead of categories (was Re: [SVN] New info.plist keys for description etc.)

[Allan Odgaard]

On 16. Feb 2007, at 05:59, Chris Thomas wrote:

> On Feb 13, 2007, at 4:56 PM, Allan Odgaard wrote:
>> Eventually I want 99% of the bundles disabled by default, and have  
>> the user start out by picking what he needs. Since there are >100  
>> bundles, there needs to be some organization.
>>
>> The categories I had in mind was:
>>
>> 1. Markup / Prose
>> 2. Programming
>> 3. Framework
>> 4. Build System
>> 5. SCM System
>> 6. Utility / Other
> It might be more interesting to use a list of tags instead of a  
> single category. You'd then be able to filter the list to a subset  
> of bundles using task-specific criteria. For example, you could  
> enable all bundles tagged with "Ruby on Rails" (Ruby, Rails, HTML),  
> or all bundles tagged with "Unix" (terminal, shell script,  
> makefiles,...), or "Coding Mac Applications" (Xcode, AppleScript,  
> ObjC, C, C++,...).

It seems elegant, but maybe it should be in addition to the fixed  
category hierarchy.

The overwhelming reason for wanting the category system is to present  
new users with a simpler view of bundles. I.e. disable all but just a  
handful by default, then give them a browser with the above  
categories (on first launch or so).

The user should feel that he is not overlooking anything, and by  
showing him around six categories (which will likely each need a  
longer description), it should be easy for him to drill down into the  
Markup / Prose, if he just want TextMate for Markdown, or ignore the  
SCM System if he does not work with version control system, etc.

With a tagging interface it would either be to show him everything  
and let him filter (which would be too much information at once for  
new users, i.e. >100 bundles) or we could show nothing, and let him  
search, but then new users will miss out on stuff (or at least feel  
this way).

At the same time it seems redundant to have a category system and a  
tagging system, as there is a huge overlap -- maybe do the tagging  
system, but promote some tags to take the role of forming the initial  
hierarchical index?