Dependencies in ports pages reduce legibility for newcomers

[Koen Stegen]

Dear all,

As a complete newbie* to FreeBSD, I'm trying to figure out whether
FreeBSD can do what I want. In particular I wanted to have a look at the
graphics capabilities so I ended up at page
http://www.freebsd.org/ports/graphics.html

Unfortunately, this page displays all dependencies (Requires:) inflating
the page to over 500 kB. I think this classifies as a big download, and
the casual surfer should be warned about its size beforehand.

Regardless of the size of the page, the dependencies make the page hard
to scan, especially for newcomers, as newcomers don't know what they are
looking for -- at least not yet.

I would suggest to hide the list of dependencies behind a link:
Long description | Package | Sources | Main Web Site | Requirements
or put it on the Long description page.

I'm aware of the master-index page which does not display the
dependencies, but that page is not really helpful to evaluate only the
graphics capabilities. The size of that page qualifies as a big download
too, so another warning would be appropriate.


Kind regards,
Koen Stegen
Belgium


* I *am* reading the book (currently page 112) and I haven't even
started burning ISOs yet, so please be patient with me.