The default package list format will extend the %p column, and one can
give other columns this attribute as well. I think you should first
try to give all other columns sufficent width before extending those.
Currently it often happens that the version columns are too narrow,
even though I have plenty of dead space in the (extended) package name
column.

My workaround is to use ... %v#%V# but this will put the version
columns too far to the left for my taste.

Hmm, come to think of it, you're probably not computing the necessary
width (i.e. maximum length of all fields in a column) at all, like I
first thought.

On Mon, Jul 09, 2001 at 01:30:47PM +0200, Robert Bihlmeyer <robbe@orcus.priv.at> was heard to say:

  The dead space could potentially be used by unusually long descriptions,
which is why I do that :/

  You could also just specify larger widths; eg, %20v %20V.  Which reminds
me, there should be a space between those two columns anyway..

  Correct.  As a matter of fact, I hadn't even considered this (partly because
of the history of my column-formatter), although I think it's not a bad
idea.  I don't think some of the subviews (eg, dependencies and information)
would be able to use this, though..

  Daniel

Daniel Burrows <dburrows@debian.org> writes:

But the default format only has the package name there, which probably
maxes out at 30 chars[1].

Sure. OTOH, there may be even longer versions ... [2]
package view, though... You're call if you want to implement that
anytime soon, of course.


Footnotes:
[1]  After checking "enlightenment-theme-brushedmetal" is the longest
currently, with 33 chars.

[2]  Again invoking some scripting, postfix-tls is currently at
version "0.0.20010502.SNAPSHOT+tls-0.7.2-1", which is even 1 char
longer than the longes package name.