Objections to converting bsd-family-tree to a dot file

[Greg Troxel]

Eitan Adler <lists at eitanadler.com> writes:

> On 15 December 2017 at 08:43, Lyndon Nerenberg <lyndon at orthanc.ca> wrote:
>>> I'd like to turn this into into a dot file
>> Sounds like a reasonable idea.  With care, the source (text) file(s) can
>> often be formatted in a way that's at least semi-readable. I assume this
>> would ship with pregenerated images (PDF, SVG) so people don't have to
>> install the port to render the graph?
>
> The overall consensus seems to be: so long as there is a reasonable
> way to view this file in plaintext without requiring a tool in base,
> its fine. I'll likely run with that after ironing out the conversion
> bit.

I think we also need to be sure that the cost/benefit tradeoff is
positive.  I wonder why this is coming up now, when the file has existed
for years, and exactly what problem is being solved.

If the file can be generated into plain text (and also more formats)
from a source file, then it might make sense to maintain the source and
toolchain requirements as a separate project, which can then be in ports
and pkgsrc etc.  Then the output can be generated and released, and
imported, and the *BSD projects can not care about how it was generated.
But it should be as readable as the current file.
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