grouping/sorting extensions by type

[jur]

Currently there is a looooooong list of extensions, sorted alphabetically. With the number growing daily, I wish for having them sorted/grouped by type instead. Currently, any newbies (such as me) need to read through the entire list to find apps with unknown/obscure names that might do what I want. EG for text editors, I am confronted with beaver, geany, leafpad, mousepad etc. Browsers same thing, there is stuff like seamonkey firefox opera etc etc. With no prior knowledge of what apps might be named, I need to read a lot including the info files, and more often than not I give up before even reaching the c's.

Any plans afoot for doing this?

[thane]

As an interim measure, you can bring up the extensions list on the main site and do a keyword search on what you're looking for (e.g. browser, media player, etc.). But I agree that it would be handy to have a list with extensions grouped by type. I'd keep the alphabetical list too for people who know what they're looking for.

[jur]

Searching in Apbrowser is of course possible especially if looking for a text editor or something well defined like that; but there are many instances where I browse the list just to see what there is. And that's the time when I wish for them to be sorted by type.

Apps could have a field for type (eg internet, office, desktop etc) and the web page could do the sorting with html scripting.

With such a type field Appbrowser could also quite easily list them by type. (Or so I imagine.)

[Kingdomcome]

This was discussed back when the repo was quite small and did not really need sorting.  However I believe the repo is starting to reach the size where this should be discussed again.  The job of segregating the repo will take some work however, the appbrowsers and webpage would need to be updated.

[bmarkus]

I think also we need categories as extension list is growing fast. But someone has to implement Regarding categories, we can use categories alread used by other distros, don not reinvent the wheel.

[thane]

I'm afraid I don't know how.

But I think just putting an extension list with categories on the website would be enough. Might not need to modify the actual repository and appbrowser. Anyone downloading TC at all must have a browser, so they can figure out what extensions they want from the list.